Steady As She Goes
by zratira
Summary: If the the witch was built like an hourglass then Molly supposed she was built more like a brick. In the grand scheme of things, it was hardly fair that she was brought to the small town already at a disadvantage.
1. Chapter 1

_"Find yourself a girl, and settle down, live a simple life in a quiet town, steady as she goes." - The Racounteurs_

* * *

"Ah, excellent, a hibiscus..."

"Now you can make the potion, right? Right? It was kinda difficult finding all this stuff, you know!"

Molly crossed her fingers. It did take her the better part of the Summer season collect only three ingredients and she was far enough into this bell thing to realize that if she didn't start making a teensy bit more headway, she'd never stop hearing Finn's nagging.

"Of course. Hold on just a moment..."

She watched him gather some items from the shelf and sit down at his table. She was curious about how glorified butter, ground corn and a flower could turn someone from a frog into, well, a person. But she never was very good at waiting or standing or doing much that required things like patience.

So she meandered around the Wizard and his little wooden table, poked at a few cupboards and smelled a couple of questionable substances.

Molly always liked the way the Wizard's house smelt. That wasn't odd, was it? It was a nice blend of coffee, teas and an odd hint of spices thrown into the mix. It reminded her that her own house could use a little of that stuff from back home. What was it's name again?

Right. Fabreeze. It would definitely prevent Finn from complaining about the 'farmy' smell of his make-shift bed in her sock drawer. She really would have to find a way to procure some...

"It's done. We can go now Molly." The Wizard cocked his head in her general direction but seemed oddly unfazed by her excursions into his cupboards.

She gave the jar closest to her one last tentative sniff, prompting the Wizard to eye her slightly more suspiciously.

"Molly, those are..." the Wizard attempted to chide.

"Super awesome magical crafting ingredients?" Molly chirrupted and clasped her hands. She was sure that the yellow and white powdery substances had to possess some sort of unique and wonderful magic property.

The Wizard sighed and shook his head.

"...No. They're my baking supplies."

"...Oh," Molly attempted to make a 'tsking' sound with her tongue and instead wound up with an entirely foriegn noise. "...I was hoping for an answer more like 'This lets me turn people into pink frogs' or 'This is what I put in Luke's coffee', you know, something exciting." she ploughed on, relatively undetered by her questionable noise.

"I...don't put those beside my stove..."

Molly failed to see why not. Where else would you make magical potions and crafts? Some of her best ones came from her kitchen! Well, maybe when she was five, but the point remained the same.

"Don't put them beside your stove...usually?"

The Wizard shook his head again.

"They are...more important. We should...see the Witch now." his voice was monotone, as it usually was, so Molly failed to see the urgency but she supposed it was his time and magic that she was pestering for.

"Fiiine. I guess that might be a good idea..."

* * *

Molly found it odd that no matter how terrible the weather was, Fugue Forest was always in the same perpetual state of overcast. Then again, she'd only been on Castanet since Spring and Summer was only just starting to draw to a close. Maybe she just had bad timing? It was one of those questions she'd been meaning to ask Finn but somehow slipped her mind whenever they were alone together.

Oh well. She supposed that now she had gotten through to the Wizard maybe it was time to put away questions to assault him with. She had remained somewhat restrained and they were nearly at the Witch's Hut. Sure, she had asked him a few simple things like why there were so many typhoons and why there was no public transitbut she never got more than a few words out of him at a time.

Quiet people are just so boring. It was a good thing she was such an excellent conversationist and made time pass by so quickly. I mean really, they were about at the front doorstep of the Witch's house now!

"She's just inside the house here, I think. Frogs don't usually move too far, right? Especially witch-frog hybrids? I don't have much experience with them, but um, I guess you might." Molly ventured after the latest bout of silence and procceeded to open the door to the hut.

As expected, the pink frog was still stationary and in almost the exact spot the farmer had found her. In a rather unexpected twist, she looked rather unhappy and shot a particularly sour glace at the Wizard; or, as sour as a pink frog could look anyway, Molly supposed. Either way, he didn't look very bothered by it as he stepped towards the table and closed his eyes in concentration.

"Tch..." she thought she heard him begin, however the rest of his words were barely audible. Both the Wizard and the pink frog glowed an eery amount and before Molly could even voice her concerns, the room was enveloped by a flash of purple light.

Somehow, the scraggly limbs of the frog had morphed into arms and legs and the protruding mouth had transformed into a woman's delicate features; even the slimey skin gave way for clothing. The hat however, remained the same.

Truth be told, Molly was a bit jealous. She had been expecting a typical fairy tale witch complete with the sagging, pot belly and warts. Maybe spending time as a frog could trim her excess bulk and do wonders for her complextion. Her bust could use some of that enlarging too, come to think of it.

Farming sucked. It didn't help her minor problem with clogged pores and her extra pounds had quickly melted away and gave way for a more stocky, muscular figure. If the the witch was built like an hourglass then Molly supposed she was built more like a brick. In the grand scheme of things, it was hardly fair that she was brought to the small town already at a disadvantage. Alas, life's a bitch and you deal with the cards you're dealt; no matter how unfair.

"What took you so long? I was stuck as a frog forever!" the Witch, luckily for Molly, directed her gripes at the Wizard next to her. Forever? Some people were just so impatient.

"And I had to eat flies and I was slimy!" Well, Molly could hardly fault her for that one, actually, her point was quite valid.

"Well, I told you not to use that spell..." the Wizard started.

"You left me as a frog to teach me a lesson? You're so...mean!" the Witch continued to fume.

He seemed amused by this. Well, as amused as stoic wizards tend to get.

"Well, did it work?"

Molly didn't predict this fight in her list of logical outcomes. She expected the Witch to be eternally grateful and her words to be more along the lines of 'make sweet love to me now'; she was even expecting to hear it directed to her or the Wizard, or possibly even both of them. Molly liked to think she was open minded. An argument between magic users just seemed dangerous and not the good kind of dangerous either.

"I hate you! You make me so mad! Get out!"

The Witch even had the gall to slam the door behind them. Suffice to say, Molly was a teensy bit offended. Collecting the ingredients to turn her back wasn't exactly easy.

"Well, that wasn't exactly nice of her. Hmph. All that trouble..." Molly sighed, talking to the Witch was really her only plan of action.

"...It looks like I'm done here," The Wizard began making his way towards the exit. "See you later."

"Wait!" Finn shot out of her pocket and began to shout, complete with little arms reeling.

"It's not going to do us any good Finn, he's gone already"

Finn began to sob. "But...we need... the Green Bell..."

Oh dear. Molly figured now would be a good time to utilize a distraction before he launched into full blown temper tantrum status. "Let's just try going back in. No biggie, right?"

"R-Right! As long as we get that bell!"

* * *

"...You helped the Wizard right? I hate him, but... I guess you seem okay. I'll talk to you! What did you want to know?"

"Umm, how ol--" Finn gave her a swift jab in the side. Were Harvest Sprites even allowed to do that? "I mean, do you know anything about the Green Bell?"

"Hmm, I do have some green stuff... Let's take a look!"

"But...It's a bell! A green bell! In fact I think I see it right behind those scrolly-things," Molly pointed "right there!"

Really, she was no rocket scientist or even a regular scientist, but even she knew what a bell looked like! No wonder the Wizard left her...

"Oh, this?" the Witch held up a suspicious looking leaf that Molly could have sworn she saw before (and might explain the strange scent in the Witch's home).

"Is...is that pot?"

"No silly! I think it's a leaf..." replied the Witch.

"But I wanted a bell...That one! Right beside it!" Molly decided not to press her anymore about her 'leaf'. Besides, the bells were far more important to Finn's self-esteem!

"This right here?" this time she held up a worn bell.

Finn flailed about beside her. "Molly! That's not..."

"Yes! That's the one!" Molly ignored Finn's protests. They weren't anything new anyway. Besides, what did he mean it wasn't the bell? The Harvest Goddess really could have sent her a brighter companion...

"Oh! That is it! That's the Green Bell we need!" Finn really was a little slow.

The Witch seemed miles happier than she had been a few minutes ago. "Tee hee! Well, you did help me, so you can have this! But promise me something, okay human?"

Molly reached out to take the bell from her. More favours? Couldn't the people here stand on their own feet just a little more?

"Okay," Molly relented after spending a few more seconds mulling over the decision, "but you need to start calling me 'Molly', not 'human'. It's getting kinda degrading..."

"Deal, but I want you to promise me that you'll visit me! I spent months as a frog and nobody even knew about it... It's kinda lonely out here you know!"

Molly figured that wasn't such a bad thing to promise. She barely had any friends since moving anyway and socializing with only the Harvest Goddess and sprites were liable to make her crazy. Sure, the Witch had her idiosyncrasies, but Molly would be lying if she said she wasn't a little lonely too.

So she complied and agreed to visit more often and the Witch even agreed to maybe come up to her quaint little farm.

"There's just one other thing... Maybe stay away from that meanie Wizard. I know what you're thinking: 'Oh, he's so gorgeous and deep and that tattoo is so...so...' What's that word the lighthouse kid has been saying? Right: 'badass.' But he isn't so you're better off staying away from him and visiting me!"

Actually, she wasn't thinking anything of the sort. In fact, what Molly was thinking was more along the lines of 'Wow, he's scrawny and how is he so tanned when I never even saw him outdoors for the first season I lived here?' But now that she mentioned it...

Luke was still more her type anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

"I just have a little bit of insomnia, Finn! Really, that's all!"

Well, considering the time was nearly one in the morning, that wasn't exactly far from the truth. For some reason, her internal farmer clock was nice and skewed. There wasn't exactly much to do during the day at the end of the season when it was too late to begin growing any of Fall's crops and her companion was nocturnal anyway.

"Nuh uh! You're going to see him again! I know you are!" Finn began to ball his little fists, a sure sign that he was preparing for a tantrum of epic proportions.

It was like taking care of a child sometimes. A cute little child she wanted to throw at a wall. Sometimes, only sometimes and in the deeper, darker recesses of her mind, she really wanted to punch the Harvest Goddess. Hard.

"Really Finn! Stop being so jealous!" Molly sighed and attempted to restrain herself from wringing the little guy's neck. They were both too stubborn for their own good and there's never anyway to tell how long they could keep it up.

It was almost an unhealthy relationship, really.

"He'll just distract you from helping the Harvest Goddess, Molly!"

"That was a low blow Finn, you know I'm not going to let that happen!" Molly's voice began to grow until it matched Finn's high-pitched wails.

"Yes you are! And then you'll forget about the bells...and then you'll forget about me!"

Were all Harvest Sprites this insecure? Really, her late night plans shouldn't be any sort of problem anyway. Besides, Molly failed to see why Finn was so upset about this!

"Finn! He's a cat!"

"A no good rotten..." Finn slinked a few tiny steps back to his sock drawer and scowled.

"That's enough. You aren't jealous of the cow are you? Or the duck? Because really, I guess I should be wondering about that now too!"

"Noo! But that's not the point! If you're going to see him then...then...I won't be coming with you!"

Of course, that was music to Molly's ears. She usually liked the company, but they really did spend too much time together and grate on each other's nerves. Or maybe it was just her nerves. Oh well.

With a barely concealed grin, Molly made her way towards the door and into the brisk late summer air.

* * *

It had become a routine for them. She would bring him slices of fish, leftovers, whatever she could and he would come a little closer and become a little friendlier. Molly wanted to bring him home, no matter what Finn thought; she hated seeing stray animals anywhere in the town.

Her companion was a rich black, mid-size cat. She thought he was male anyway. It was hard to tell and a tiny detail like that didn't really matter much. Molly's goal was to become friendly enough with the cat to bring him home before any of the snow hit.

"...Well, if you're looking after him...I won't worry so much..." Molly paused and expected some stranger to hobble out of the bushes and attack, but was oddly disappointed to find the Wizard standing not even a few feet away. The nerve!

"You do realize that's the most you've spoken to me, ever? Right? And after leaving me with the witch!"

The man smiled slightly. Molly thought she could see some slight wrinkling on his face. Sexy.

"I'm surprised you two don't get along better...You seem to be quite...similar."

Molly frowned. "Pffft. We are not! She's...she's old! ...I think. And smelly! ...Well, okay, maybe she just kinda smells like incense and stuff, but those are smelly!"

Her? And the Witch? Well, okay, maybe there was a little, teensy part of them that was similar. Maybe. If you squinted just the right way and did a quick jig.

The Wizard made a sound that resembled part of a laugh deep in his throat. Molly couldn't quite decide if she should take it as a signal of amusement or just some strange sound effect. After all, she made those quite often.

"It's not...so bad, perhaps."

"What do you mean 'not so bad'? Do you um, have a thing for her or something?"

Molly thought it was a reasonable question. Witches and wizards just sorta clicked right? At least, that's how Harry Potter always made it seem...

The Wizard gave no outward sign of, well, anything Molly could discern.

"We have known each other...for a time." he replied, without even a note of wistfulness.

"Um, I don't know if you really noticed or not, but she doesn't seem to really like you."

The Wizard didn't make any particular attempt to respond to Molly's comment. Instead, he merely reached down and held out his hand to the black cat that was currently seated a minute distance away, obviously expecting Molly to relinquish her usual goodies.

Never wanting to be outdone by some crafty Wizard that was making a move on her cat, Molly also extended her hand. However, she needn't have worried since the cat was smarter than to pay any particular attention to the Wizard, given that he knew whose hands had been handling fishy substances. The Wizard didn't seem particularly fazed to be snubbed by the cat.

Molly still allowed herself to feel triumphant in her small victory and fished out some leftovers she had prepared in her pack.

"Mm, fish, I guess that's something we have in common, huh?" Molly grinned.

The Wizard flinched.

Molly felt a little bit insulted. "You do know I was talking to him, right? I didn't bring any funky mushrooms or sparkly butter for you!"

In his usual fashion, the Wizard turned and left without a word.

Molly snorted and scratched the cat affectionately.

"I don't know what they do with those mushrooms...Well, I guess the witch uses them for pranks, that much is obvious. But he hardly looks like he plays pranks or does anything all that magical! Maybe," Molly leaned down to whisper the cat, "He uses them for...other purposes! Dastardly! Preposterous! The great Castanet Wizard using purple sparkly mushrooms for recreational purposes!"

Molly made sure to add extra emphasis and hand gestures. Cats were smart after all. They could pick up on these things!

The cat briefly stared up at her quizzically before hoisting a leg in order to groom himself.

"...That would explain the bags under his eyes and why he needs to sneak out in the cover of night! Do you think he ever gets the munchies?"

* * *

"Buuut Finn! I already have one wish...Really! How many more do we need to finish this thing?

Finn flailed his arms about haphazardly. "Molly! That's not funny! We need, um, a lot more! One isn't very much at all..."

Farming, making friends...Traveling around on the back of a cow to visit said friends... It was sometimes just too much for Molly. It took her _ages_. And by _ages_ what she really meant was _days_ of plying the witch with Fugue mushrooms (and her darkest girly secrets) in order to make her fork over her one measly wish.

It wasn't even something good and selfless like world peace. It was a potion that would let her extort pretty much anything from anyone. All in all, it suited her, but Molly was vastly unsatisfied.

Meandering back from an unsuccessful jaunt to the church was hardly putting her in a good mood either.

"Hmph. I don't understand why the Harvest Goddess is so picky! She should take what she can get! Can't people wish for these things at the church themselves? I mean, I never see anyone in there, I don't think I should be the one playing messenger 'cause they can't be bothered to walk all the way--"

"Waaah! Molly! W-What are you saying? W-We...need to because...um, because... We just need toooo!" Finn wailed, for the umpteenth time that day.

Sometimes Molly wished other people could see Finn. And hear him. Because boy oh boy, some days he was less cute than others...

In a half-hearted attempt to distract herself from the racket Finn was making, her gaze wandered from house to house. The Wizard's observatory, the mayor's clean-cut and no-nonsense abode, The Inn where Maya was doing her usual circles around the doorstep...

And then it struck her.

It had been almost an entire day since Molly had any tea! And the weather was slightly nippy, and Finn was easily distracted indoors and Maya always made interesting conversation, and...

Molly needed to justify it no further! Ocarina Inn would be her next destination! Molly set off at a run for the entire one hundred meters it took to land at the Inn's doorstep.

Finn once again wailed at the injustice of being so rudely forgotten.

* * *

"Look at him Molly, he's so perfect..."

Maya gazed intensely across the table and Molly hoped that she was looking somewhere over her shoulder, otherwise things could get a little awkward...

Oh. Upon closer inspection, the kitchen was Maya's current object of affection.

"The guy, or the food? 'Cause I think the food looks way better. No hair clips and no sandals in Fall..."

Maya sighed. "...I wouldn't mind a piece of that pie..."

"I, um, don't think that's the right way around, Maya."

"But it looks so good!"

Molly actually made the effort to turn and look over her shoulder. Chase was indeed making a cherry pie. Oopsy. Time to change the subject!

"So," Molly began, "If you could wish for anything... What would it be?"

"I dunno Molly, that stuff is top secret!" Maya grinned.

Somewhere, the Harvest Goddess was laughing at Molly. She could feel it. This purple bell stuff was just too much work!

Then again, she certainly wouldn't want to share her deepest wishes with just _anybody_. Molly thought she understood. Kinda. Maybe. A little bit.

"So what you're saying is...You'll tell me if we become better friends!"

Maya pressed a finger to her lip in concentration.

"Nope! But I might think about it if you bring me more cake..."


	3. Chapter 3

Molly was never quite sure what to make of rainy days. On one hand they prevented her from doing the watering (which was always a plus since she had gotten ambitious enough to fill her entire field this season). However, there was always this boring air of melancholy that she couldn't shake.

It always seemed to sap any of her motivation completely. Moreover, given that it was still very early into the fall season, Molly was sure that she only had plenty of days like these to look forward to.

"It's raining Finn..." Molly, seated with her head resting on her palm, inclined her head to the left slightly.

Finn floated lazily somewhere she assumed to be near the top of her head. "Yeah..."

"I've been wondering, Finn..." Molly paused to put a finger to her bottom lip, "Don't your wishes count towards this bell thingy?"

"I'm a sprite, Molly!"

Finn's pace became a little more frenzied and she could feel the breeze his little wings were creating against her face. Why did this have to be so complicated? The other bells just consisted of her timing things right and collecting stuff...

"...So what's your point? You have wishes, right? I still think wishes are wishes no matter who they come from."

Finn stopped his mad dash around Molly's head for a few brief moments before finally seating himself near Molly's head on the windowpane, looking a little forlorn.

"...I want to be just like the others. I don't want to be tiny and special..."

"Pfft, conformity is overrated!" Molly scoffed.

Finn looked hurt, and, as per usual, was on the verge of tears. Honestly, he should have expected her to say something like that by now! She still felt a little guilty though. The little guy was pretty unstable after all.

"You're mean! You have to tell me your wish now!" Finn stamped his little feet around on the ledge, making tiny 'tip tip' noises that were barely audible over the rain outside.

"Nu uh!" Molly shook her head. No way was Finn going to extract that information out of her! Definitely not!

"Molly! No fair! No faaair!"

Finn leapt off the windowsill and began to circle around her head before deciding to settle on her shoulder. And promptly beat her with his tiny fists.

Molly folded. Folded like a folding chair. She did have to share the house with him for an indefinite amount of time.

"Fiiine. Um, I don't know. To have a shapely figure and influence people?"

Finn settled on her shoulder and folded his arms. "...I'm not sure if that's a very good wish."

"...Me either." Molly sighed. "We need to get out of here and find something else to do."

"Yeah..." Finn nodded.

"We're running out of food again..." Molly shifted her head to her other hand and continued to gaze absent-mindedly out the window.

Finn mimicked her gesture from his perch on her shoulder. "Yeah..."

"We could, um, look for some herbs and stuff?"

Molly always hated the start of the season. She didn't quite have the entire farming business down yet and always had a hard time making her money last until the crops grew while feeding herself, Finn and her sparse amount of livestock.

"I'm sick of those..."

"Isn't that what you guys always eat?" she couldn't imagine Finn making those complaints to the Harvest Goddess.

Finn twiddled his tiny thumbs. "Not all the time...I like it when you bring back cake better."

"Stop being so picky!"

* * *

By the time Molly arrived at Fugue Forest, she was soaked. What had started as a foraging trip had turned into a 'Let's see what the witch is having for lunch' trip. Sure, she had collected some herbs (with every intention to force Finn to eat them, serves him right for being picky!) but really, Molly was more interested in something less bland. And less likely to kill her if it was the wrong colour.

"Molly, we hardly have any herbs or mushrooms collected..." Finn switched from flying in a straight line in favour of more haphazard circles.

Molly made a sharp right down the nearest path, trying rather vainly to remember which path led to where. Everything just seemed to be the same set of randomly generated trees, stumps and paths.

Finn paused and gazed at Molly skeptically.

"Molly," Finn narrowed his eyes at her, "are we going to see the Witch again?"

"...Maintaining friendships is important!" Molly was many things, but a liar wasn't always one of them.

Finn assumed his usual pose to berate her, but before he could start, something caught his attention.

Molly continued down the path, oblivious to Finn, before coming to a grinding halt.

...Oh, so that was it. Barely a few steps away, Molly stumbled upon a rather familiar scene. The wizard and the witch fighting over something sparkly. Molly assumed it was one of those odd purple mushroom things she usually found. Or drugs. But really, those could be considered one in the same.

Hmm.

She couldn't put anything past magical beings or blame them really. It was probably really boring living for like, hundreds of years and junk.

"I saw it first!" The Witch tugged hard, causing the Wizard to stumble, but not relinquish his hold on the object.

"I tried to grab it before you..." The Wizard yanked back, putting them at somewhat of a stalemate.

Neither appeared to notice Molly, who had her head cocked in morbid amusement.

"Meanie! Let go!" Witch gave it another pull and Molly wondered just how sturdy that mushroom had to be not to succumb to squishing or breaking into chunky pieces.

"No, you let it go..."

It briefly occurred to Molly that this argument caused Mr. Wizard to speak more words than she had ever heard him utter to her on a regular basis. Usually it was just a word here or there. And not very interesting words either!

The Witch gasped, causing Molly to snap out of her thoughts and wrench her head towards the pair again.

"You idiot! The Fugue mushroom!"

Molly noted the absence of the sparkly mushroom and even she could manage to put together the result this time.

"...This isn't good." Wizard's eyes darted from a direction in the woods, to the Witch, back to the woods again and finally settled on Molly.

There was a brief moment of silence while the Witch's eyes began to settle on Molly too.

"Hey, human. Do us a favour. Gimme that mushroom. It's um, got spots and stuff. And it's rare. This idiot..." The Witch Princess started nonchalantly.

"Who's the idiot...?" The Wizard frowned and gazed away from the Witch. "Molly, if you find it, bring it to me."

The Witch Princess stamped her feet impatiently and did a flail that the farmer thought looked suspiciously akin to Finn and his fits.

"Noo! I saw it first! If you find it, give it to me! And make it snappy!"

"I trust you'll know who to give it to." The Wizard nodded to Molly.

Molly was understandably confused as both Witch Princess and Wizard began to stomp off in opposing directions.

"...Don't I give you guys those mushrooms at least once a day...?"

* * *

It didn't take Molly more than fifteen minutes of aimless wandering before she stumbled upon the Fugue mushroom. Or one of the mushrooms. She didn't really see the difference or care anymore about what made them so special anyway.

Conveniently, it wasn't that far away from the Witch's house anyway. Maybe she could extract some lunch from her after all. Shiny objects usually accomplished that anyway. Nevertheless, today it was a shiny object that the Wizard wanted, which just had to make it a way better bribe.

Within a few minutes, Molly found herself on the doorstep of the Witch Princess' humble little pond shack. She only had to knock once before the Witch ripped open the door.

"Do you have it?"

"Um, yes, but..." Molly had to admit that being this welcome by the witch kinda startled her.

"Then get in!" The Witch grabbed Molly's hand and yanked her in the door.

Molly smelled something funky. Well, more funky than usual. The house always smelled a little off-putting. Finn remained oddly quiet during the ordeal.

After a few abrupt seconds of awkward pondering, the Witch released Molly and proceeded to hop up on her stool, and begin mixing her gigantic cauldron while humming something Molly didn't recognize. It scared her a bit, actually.

"Soo, I figure I probably should have asked this earlier, but...What do you plan on doing with this Fugue mushroom that's different from usual?"

"Tee hee! Somethiiing."

She was just entirely too happy. There had to be something wrong with this decision, but Molly couldn't place it exactly...

"Well, if you aren't going to tell me, maybe I should take it to Wizard..."

That got her attention. The magical user immediately climbed down from her perch and placed both her hands on Molly's shoulders.

"You can't do that! You brought it for me! We're...friends, right?"

Molly sighed, "Yeah..."

Witch removed her hands from Molly. "Well, what's the problem then? You don't want to give it to that meanie, he'll just use it for 'research' and some kind of 'greater good'! I'll put it to good use!" she grinned broadly.

"You mean pranks, don't you?"

"Yup! And if you give it to me, I'll even make you lunch! You like blueberry cake!" The Witch replied without missing a beat.

"...Well, your uses for it sound more fun anyway!" Molly unzipped her rucksack and began to remove the mushroom.

The Witch Princess grinned and nodded briefly before snatching the item right out of Molly's hands and returning to her place by the cauldron.

Finn complained in her ear about the injustice followed shortly by a lecture about the untrustworthiness of the Witch. The farmer quietly promised him leftovers and his qualms suddenly ceased.

"Hee hee! Just let me finish this and I'll get us lunch after!"

Molly decided to take a seat on the Witch's bed. Usually, she would be scolded for it, but the Witch was too preoccupied to really care anyway.

Finn had settled himself near her window and stayed uncharacteristically quiet.

Molly found herself drawn to the window for some time. The rain was pouring outside in an oddly mesmerizing sort of way. Maybe there would be some thunder later too...

"Okay! You do want cake don't you?" The Witch had somehow managed to sneak up in front of the farmer and proudly held a plate with a delicious looking piece of cake and matching fork.

Under normal circumstances, Molly may have actually thought about what the Witch was up to, but the cake just looked so good...

She snatched the fork and gave it a gracious sniff before diving in and devouring most of it with vigor.

Whoops, she was almost forgetting her manners!

"Didn't you want any, Witch?"

"No, no, you go ahead and enjoy it." she smirked, but Molly was too enamored to pay it much thought before savoring the last few morsels.

"Mm, that was really good!" Molly felt entirely too satisfied, having accomplished her goal of sponging off one friend for the day.

The Witch frowned. "That's it?"

Molly didn't understand. What else was there that she could possibly praise of the Witch's culinary skills?

"What do you mean 'That's it?'"

Then it hit her, hard. Almost as if someone has sucked all the breath from her body in one fell swoop and punched her in the gut, for good measure. She could see the edges of her vision go fuzzy and dark before starting to funnel.

"What did you...?" Molly attempted to start.

"Hmm...This isn't what I planned..." The farmer could hear the Witch say, but her voice was growing faint.

Was she dreaming? Had she fallen asleep? She thought she was conscious, but everything was starting to look foreign and...Why couldn't she move her body?

"...Oopsie." mumbled a faint voice.

Then, there was nothing but darkness.


	4. Chapter 4

Molly smelt something funny. Almost like coffee beans and a menagerie of fruits. She felt tired and her eyelids were heavy. Was it 6am already? She just didn't want to open her eyes...

"...Wake up." she heard a faint voice say.

That voice sounded familiar. Almost soothing. As if it belonged in a dream she didn't want to wake up from. Not the naughty ones, just the oddly comforting ones that took her away from Finn and the farm to whisk her away to some foreign, fantasy land for a little while.

"You need to...wake up now."

Well, usually odd, disembodied voices didn't steer her wrong. The farmer began the labourous process of cracking open her eyelids.

The light was oddly dim; however, her eyes still had troubles focusing on the bleary shapes. She blinked harder, attempting to focus.

One shape was purple. The other wasn't distinguishable as much other than something shiny.

Then, all at once, it hit her. A pulsing headache that seemed to bring everything back into focus.

"You...aren't very smart, are you...?" The purple shape morphed into the features of the Castanet Wizard.

Ick. This was awkward. Where was she? What had happened?

Wait, who was he calling dumb!

"...This is why I don't give you stuff." Molly maneuvered herself into a sitting position and spotted Finn looking worried and floating just beside the Wizard.

Her breath hitched just a little bit. This wasn't her farmhouse or her bed for that matter! What was he trying to pull! Dastardly, devious, sneaky wizards and their...stuff...that they do!

The Wizard regarded her a little warily.

"Do you..." he faltered, "Remember anything...?"

Why was he acting so dense? She was just having a little rainy day nap at the Witch's hut!

"What do you mean 'remember anything'? I was just taking a nap and then suddenly I'm here with you. You explain that! Did you do something to the Witch? I knew those Fugue mushrooms were bad things to keep bringing you two! Now I'm part of some crazy magical drug cartel and you're using me for...for...some crazy wizard bondage!" Molly shook her fist in Wizard's general direction with as much vigor as she could manage with her splitting headache.

The Wizard was equal parts confused and perturbed by Molly's actions. In other words, it was nothing out of the ordinary, really.

"Wizard...bondage?" he paused and gave Molly a funny look. "No. That mushroom you gave the Witch...Was more potent. She used it...in a magical recipe...I don't know...what she wanted to accomplish."

Molly couldn't fathom it. She didn't even remember eating anything or having a spell placed on her!

"Then how come I don't remember it! A-And how come I'm sitting here," Molly looked around at the foreign purple bedding around her. "In what I'm guessing is your bed!"

Finn looked like he desperately wanted to tell her something, but was restraining himself.

The Wizard closed his eyes and proceeded to rub them, an act that was probably an attempt to compose himself. Come to think of it, Molly had never heard him speak this much in, well, ever.

"The Witch has...done this before. I thought that...this might happen...I came to check...to make sure. And found you. The Witch...never learns."

Molly remained skeptical. He still might have molested her after all!

...Or maybe that was just wishful thinking.

"That still doesn't explain why I'm here."

"We carried you...I made a remedy...It was easier to do it...here..."

Molly frowned. The pieces were slowly starting to come together.

"And she just left?"

Wizard nodded. Molly felt kinda betrayed, but she had to admit that even she should have known better.

"We do not...get along. She felt...obligated...The Witch is not used to...humans."

"That still doesn't explain why you would help me. I mean, I haven't really been all that nice to you." the farmer tried her best not to feel bad, he did do her another big favour after all!

"You...have been an asset to...this land. I know...how hard you work. It would be...a shame for the Witch...to ruin that." The Wizard attempted a smile.

Molly grasped at the blankets. "I don't know about the whole 'working hard' thing but, um, thanks, I guess."

So maybe he wasn't so bad. Sure, he was about as interesting as a brick wall, but he had some good points after all. Needless to say, no matter how obligated the Witch felt to help bring her back, feeding her magical zappy juice through the form of a tasty treat was not something she could just forgive!

Ow! There was that terrible pounding in her head again. Well, if he cured whatever the Witch Princess did to her, maybe the Wizard had something for this splitting pain too.

"So, about this terrible headache I'm getting..." Molly began, hoping he would catch her drift.

He appeared to think deeply about it.

"...Aspirin?" he finally replied, looking amused at the farmer.

"I thought you'd be more into, you know, herbal stuff." If Molly had it in her to face palm, there would have been no time more opportune.

The Wizard merely shrugged and handed her a bottle.

* * *

Under the advisement of the Wizard, Molly had decided that it was probably in her best interests to visit Jin about the horrendous headache and residual feelings of nausea. However, even she had to admit it sounded a bit suspicious. Still, it was always good to get these things sorted out and she didn't even complain when Irene pricked her for the precautionary blood work.

The farmer also had to admit that the wait times to see the doctor were better here than in the city. Even if she only had the choice of one doctor.

"You just fainted and you say you've never fainted before in your life? You've also had feelings of nausea, in addition to your current headache? The last time I encountered this, the aforementioned patient later found out she was expecting. Now, I'm not saying this is the case, however, Molly, have you considered this possibility?" Dr. Jin regarded her stoically from his seat.

Molly resisted the urge to simultaneously laugh and wail him in the face at the implication. Nevertheless, she had kind of left out the details about the Witch and the Fugue mushroom and it wasn't as if she really told the villagers much about herself, let alone the doctor. He had only showed up a few weeks ago anyway!

"Well, unless Hamilton has been sneaking inside for more than just telling me about the festivals, no."

"It could have been multiple other reasons. Have you been eating and drinking? There is not always a clear-cut reason. We will however have the lab go over the blood work. If it happens again, do not hesitate to come back and see me. "

Lab? The dinky little clinic had one of those? Molly did not care enough to pursue it further. She doubted she would really understand any answers anyway.

"...As for the headache," Jin pressed on. "Perhaps try some over the counter medication. Again, if it continues to become unbearable, I will also make house calls. We are merely a phone call away."

"Okay!" Molly staggered off the bed she was perched on. "Um, thank you Dr. Jin."

The farmer made her way towards the door that led back to the waiting room. After all that, she was just up some awkward conversations and told the same thing that the Wizard told her. Darn. Nothing seemed to be coming up Molly today!

"And Molly?" Molly glanced back at Jin, her hand lingering above the doorknob. "Perhaps changing your door lock may be in order."

* * *

Molly's first task upon arriving home was to check on her crops and her cow. Surprisingly, it was still only mid afternoon. It felt like it had at least been a couple days! The day was once again rainy, so she need not have really worried about the crops and her cow was only a little miffed about receiving its daily fodder a few hours later than the regular schedule.

Her head still hurt though. Luckily, there were drugs for that. Lots of them. Finn was even mad enough to take a break from talking to her. Overall, she had the makings of a great afternoon! Therefore, she did what she usually did on boring rainy afternoons that didn't involve being knocked out by crazy magical entities: make tea.

And invite Anissa over. By way of ordering crop seeds and promptly forcing her in when she attempted to drop them off at Molly's farm. Hooray! Now she only needed to extract her hopes and dreams and tell them to a funny painting at the church!

"...And that's how I found Gill and Luna..." Molly made some questionable hand gestures.

"Mm, I've been wondering Molly..." Anissa interrupted, before trailing off in hopes that Molly would lose interest in her current subject.

"Oh yeah?" Molly replied. Some people just couldn't handle good gossip! Couldn't Anissa tell she was trying to endear herself by way of planting a little small town rumor and seeing how far it would get?

"I've been meaning to ask why you came to this area. Pardon me for saying, but you still don't seem like the farming type..."

Molly shrugged. "I got knocked up and dropped out of college."

"W-What?"

"The cost of living is cheaper and I hate large towns. I get bored when every day is exactly the same. My grandpa was a farmer, so it's not as if I'm as unfamiliar with it as I seem. My cousin got his farm though. She always was the favourite. It was probably because of that incident with the cows and the beehive..."

"I-I see." Anissa looked a little troubled.

Molly failed to see why.

Needless to say, Anissa finished her tea rather quickly and politely declined any further doses before excusing herself to return home for dinner. The nerve! She hadn't even gotten to the point where she was able to get any good dirt on her and Jin, let alone an entire wish!

She just wanted to save the land! Freaking people making it difficult because...stuff.

Molly made her way back over to her windowsill and proceeded to think deep thoughts. Mostly about food, but some other thoughts were deep too! Well, that might have been a bit of a stretch.

Finn lazily emerged from whatever nook he'd been sulking in to protest a little closer to her face.

"...I'm hungry, Molly." The sprite began to wring his hands in a pouty manner.

Molly watched the rain pound outside as the surrounding area began to grow dark.

"Oh, I guess the fridge is still empty. Want to go to Fugue Forest?"

Finn cried.


	5. Chapter 5

For once, it was a sunny day. After several days of pouring rain, even Molly had to admit she wouldn't mind watering her crops if it meant less of this doomy-gloomy weather. However, she had to admit that the extra time gave her plenty of opportunity to excel in other areas!

She was nice and recovered from the Witch Princess' little prank too. And pissed off to boot! Time to move on and find better friends and all that jazz!

"...I just don't understand how you managed it, Molly." Finn, as usual, buzzed around the top of her head.

"Well, um, bribery, mostly..." Molly paused to dab at her forehead with a dirty gloved hand.

Molly hated hard work. Well, mostly hard work dealing with crops. Harvesting was especially un-fun!

"But that's all ten wishes in only a few days!" Finn protested.

"I think that they just wanted me off their backs, really..." Molly took hold of a particularly large eggplant and plunked it in the large basket beside her.

"It's unlike you to be modest!" the sprite squinted at Molly.

"Okay, okay. I went to the Inn and waited around until nobody knew any better. And just asked around and stuff." the farmer began to drag her full basket of eggplants over towards the shipping bin, Finn following close behind.

"...I don't understand."

Molly didn't see how hard that was to understand. The residents of Harmonica Town weren't _that_ private.

"Maybe it's my winning personality?" the farmer paused to open the bin and dump the contents of her basket into it. "Because it's certainly not my good looks or anything."

Finn remained oddly quiet.

The least he could do was help her harvest or something! She had to ship 100,000G worth of crops by the end of the season! If she would have known this, she definitely would have slacked a little less at the start of the season... Fall was a terrible time anyway!

"Don't give me that look!"

Finn stared at Molly oddly, "What look?"

"The one that screams 'why did the Harvest Goddess pick her anyway'! ...Or maybe not 'screams' exactly... looks screaming is just silly!"

"...You're silly, Molly." Finn continued to eye her warily.

"Oh yeah well, um, your face is silly!" Molly paused and squinted up at the sprite.

Finn gave her no reply and buzzed around her head some more.

Molly spared a gaze at Finn as he fluttered around. "...I miss when farming was all about collecting crops and going to a smattering of festivals in a tiny town. Not all this bell collecting, wish-making stuff..."

"What was that, Molly?"

"Oh, nothing..."

The instant Molly entered her house she heard knocking, which wasn't that unusual really. It was almost like everyone just waited until the most inopportune time to knock! She contemplated not answering it, but that would be rude and lately people had been telling her trivial information that she would no doubt use at some point. Maybe.

"Good morning." said a voice, nervously, as she squeaked open the door.

Molly squinted at the stoop, or, rather the purple Wizard shaped object standing on her stoop thrusting a copious amount of...something in her general direction.

The Wizard rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. "I tried...I mean, I made this. Er, would you like it?"

"...You're stuttering, Wizard. What are you up to? Did you put some more magical zappy juice in this thing?" Molly took the glass anyway.

Wizard averted his gaze and made some interesting, albeit subtle, gestures. "I stutter...lots...And it's vegetable juice..."

"No, you don't, you pause, but you don't usually throw any 'er's' or 'uh's' in there." The farmer tilted her head and narrowed her eyes momentarily. "Wait a minute! Vegetable juice? Are you calling me fat? Saying I need to diet? Humph!"

"It's good for you..." The Wizard attempted, lamely.

"I live on a farm." Molly ploughed on, undeterred. "I grow vegetables."

"I just want...you to stay healthy..."

Molly squinted. "You think I'm fat."

"I just..." he flushed bright red.

"You think I'm a cow, don't you?" She narrowed her eyes critically at the Wizard, running them from funky (ugly) shoes, to weirdly fashionable purple robe to the odd braid-thing in Wizard's hair. And contemplated when the last time he washed that thing was; Wizards were known to be unhygienic, after all.

"I..." he looked torn between feeling hurt and offended at her tirade.

"Or maybe you do actually want me to stay healthy...Or diet...Or maybe you don't. Hmm, this requires further pondering! 'Kay, thanks for the juice! Bye!" she retreated back inside the house to the usual disapproving stares of Finn.

"Molly...Why are you being so mean to the poor Wizard?"

"He called me fat."

"He just gave you some vegetable juice, because he worries about you and wants you to stay in tip-top shape for farming!"

"He just wanted in my pants."

Finn sighed, as per usual. "I don't know Molly; I'm starting to wonder why anyone would want in your pants. Unless maybe the Harvest Goddess knows you aren't really a hero at all and wants you to make one instead!"

"Ew, like, spawn? Do they have spawning pits in Castanet?"

"Um, no, more like children."

"Oh, wait, how do you know about this stuff anyway? You're secretly as corrupt as I am!"

"Noo, it's just the miracle of-"

"No, no, no! I can't hear you! The last thing I need is this talk from a Harvest Sprite! I'm going to go...milk a cow or something productive like that! And no I will not make you creepy sprites some farmer-wizard spawn! Well, maybe someday, but not today!"

* * *

Bess the cow was unhappy, like every other day, and Molly could identify with her. It was tough work sitting all day, and eating and getting milked and eating some more. Actually, Molly thought that sounded like a pretty darn good life, without much physical effort, especially since Bess was her super special cow friend and didn't have to worry about turning into ground Bess or anything unpleasant. It was just too bad that Bess hadn't realized her good fortune and was perpetually miserable and never gave her shining milk to ship.

"You ought to be more grateful, you know. I don't know why I decided to use my hard-earned farm cash to buy you anyway. Not to mention all the extra work it is to grow your food," she informed Bess.

Bess didn't particularly care, and gave her yet more Decent Milk. Molly brushed her anyway, to show her that she was a nice and kind person, instead of spiteful, which was probably closer to the truth but she couldn't let Bess catch on to that secret just in case she might actually, maybe be warming up to her. Molly decided she could live with the Decent Milk, provided that one day she could ride Bess like Cain emphatically explained as he pawned the cow off on her.

"Molly..." ventured a voice through the crack in the barn door, causing Molly to curse at herself for not shutting the door all the way.

"Finn, I really don't want to continue this talk with you again..."

A distinctly silver head poked in the doorway. "This is...Wizard. Who is this...Finn?"

Molly cursed her poor hearing and inability to differentiate between tones of voice. "Um, um, he's my cousin! In Mineral Town! I was um, just talking on my cell phone to him, yeah, that's it! He was um, judging my...farming practices...or something. Why are you here again anyway?"

"I wanted to apologize...I think I may have offended you and I..."

"You think, huh? Well, it's not a big deal or anything. Not a big enough deal for you to take time out of your daily wizardly hibernation anyway." The farmer gave Bess a particularly enthusiastic pat, and attempted to look like she was hard at work.

"About that cat...at the church grounds...winter is approaching, I was wondering if you...intended to adopt him."

Molly nearly cursed at being reminded of her impending shipping deadline, but was quickly distracted. "Huh? Mr. Kitty? Why, did you want him?"

"I like cats...But, I think he wants to be with you, Molly...Besides, with me is not a good place for pets..." Wizard inched closer to Molly, making the distinct clomping noise of heels-on-wood.

Molly gasped, loudly, "What's that supposed to mean? Don't tell me you're a crazy-"

"No, no, please...don't misunderstand. I have...potions...that are not good...for pets."

"Oh," the farmer made some exaggerated pondering motions, "well, I guess that really isn't any good for a cat. If you think he'll come with me, I'll take him. What's one more animal on this farm, anyway?"

"Good, I'm glad...We should prepare to see him...together."

"I really don't understand how you're so stuck on this 'together' thing." Molly said dryly as the Wizard inched particularly close to her and Bess. He ignored her comment, and Molly silently applauded his new survival tactic.

"Tomorrow...is supposed to be a nice night..." the Wizard ventured after a few uncomfortable seconds of watching Molly pat the increasingly distressed cow. "How about we meet at the church grounds...around 4 o'clock?"

"To try and find the cat...right?" the farmer attempted to clarify; though she was increasingly skeptical the trip was going to be about finding Mr. Kitty.

"Yes...to find the cat..." Wizard looked slightly disappointed, but flushed a nice shade of red all the same.

Molly wondered if Finn and the Harvest Goddess were conspiring to get her knocked up before she could ruin any more of their plans for the island, but quickly decided that Finn lacked the cunning and the Harvest Goddess probably had better things to do. Now, if this was the Harvest Goddess that her other cousin (Molly had a decidedly eclectic bunch of farmers in her family that, coincidentally, had small-town life altering jobs to do) across the ocean mentioned in Leaf Valley, she might be in for some surprises. This train of thought abruptly led to an in depth pondering about the communication lines of harvest Goddesses.

By now, Wizard was sweating a little bit, probably owing to her lack of response. Molly decided this was a good thing. "'Kay!" she finally chirped before leading him out of her barn and promising to meet him tomorrow.

"I don't know Bess, what do you think?" asked Molly, as she peered at the Wizard's retreating frame from her barn doorway.

Bess snorted, unhappily.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."


	6. Chapter 6

Somehow, Molly managed to keep her affairs secret, for an entire day. By the next morning, word had traveled through the sprite grapevine (Molly had no idea how, those little buggers were crafty) that she was meeting the Wizard. As far as Finn was concerned, this 'meeting' meant she had a gentleman suitor. Because she had a gentleman suitor, her marriage was imminent, as was an unavoidable pregnancy eventually resulting in Wizard-spawn. Molly wondered if the Harvest Goddess frowned on birth control or something.

"Molly, you have a date tonight! Maybe there's hope after all..." he buzzed, as he informed her for the third time, having received no immediate qualms the first couple times.

Molly heaved more eggplants into her shipping bin. "It's not a date! I'm just taking Mr. Kitty home and that's all. Wizard's going to have to try harder than that! Besides, his magic-pants aren't really my type." Try as she might, her mind was on other things anyway. Her eggplants were netting her cash, but not nearly enough and trying to calculate the correct figures made her brain burn.

"But Molly, you're _old_! You should be thinking about settling down and starting a family..." Finn protested, and Molly sorely wished that he had the ability to stay quiet or sleep longer or had some other recreational activities that didn't involve what she got up to.

"I'm not that old! I thought you were still stuck on the 'Molly, save the island' thing not this new 'Molly, make some babies' thing and what's gotten into you?"

"Well, um," Finn fluttered anxiously around Molly's head, "I don't know..."

"Finn! Spill!" Molly jabbed a free finger at his tiny chest, which he expertly avoided.

"I just think that if you had children with the Wizard... Well, you're all crazy and he's so mellow... We've talked about this before!"

He wasn't even in it for Molly's happiness or the good of the land anymore. This wasn't even close to all noble tripe Harvest Sprites were supposed to spew! "You think that somehow, someway, either the Wizard will take me down a peg or, my," Molly gulped, horrified, "kids will somehow be more evened out than me?"

Finn mumbled a rather strained sound of agreement.

"Well, that settles it!" The farmer proclaimed, walking over to feed her ingrate of a cow.

"You're going to marry the Wizard and have lots of super farm babies?" Finn brightened considerably.

Molly thrust the doors of the barn open, purposefully, causing a moo of surprise from Bess. "No way!" she exclaimed. "I'm going to go find Luke, knock him out with a big rock, drag him back here to my woman-cave and seduce him right away! And we, meaning _Luke_ and I," Molly leaned down to whisper in Finn's tiny ear that was floating conspicuously close to her face, "are going to have the most awesome spawn _ever_."

Finn went slack-jawed and looked absolutely terrified. Molly greatly enjoyed these magical moments and savoured this particular one for a few more seconds before her epic finish. She grinned menacingly.

After a few moments of tense silence she closed the door and ploughed on. "And you can babysit for us! D'you think my kids will be able to see the Harvest Sprites? I mean, that is hereditary, right?" The farmer held her chin, pondering exactly how magical things transferred from parents to children.

The sprite heaved a gigantic amount of air into his tiny frame, and exhaled slowly. He did this for several seconds, without tears, before Molly very nearly started to worry. She didn't really enjoy Finn's company most of the time, but that didn't mean she wanted the little guy to keel over!

Suddenly, without warning, he let out a monstrous bellow of grief and promptly flew over both her and her eggplant pile. Molly congratulated herself on a job well done, closed the shipping bin lid and skipped merrily off to meet the Wizard.

* * *

The sun was still high when Molly arrived at the church grounds, and she was pleased to be arriving somewhere on time for once. Unsurprisingly, she was usually the perpetually late party on social outings. However, this time she was darn excited trying to take home the cat!

And she had also misjudged the time, and was forced to meander around the island for much longer than she had hoped, but she was excited now that she was here anyway!

There was no sign of Mr. Kitty anywhere yet, but she hadn't really looked all that hard. The farmer was more enamored by the whooshing noises and things that she typically didn't notice. How close were they to the ocean, anyway? She could hear it roaring pretty good from up here. Molly peered disdainfully at the long, long drop off the stone ledge to the most likely rocky shore below.

"...Did you wait long? ...For me?" a masculine voice inquired from behind her. Molly cursed the sneakiness of wizards, catching her all unprepared and contemplative!

The farmer whipped around. Her caller was oddly close, almost bordering on impropriety at less than arm's reach away! She chalked another point up on her mental scoreboard for sneaky wizards.

"Well... I mistook what time it was and hung around the town for around four hours, so yes, I suppose I did wait long! Not that it's your fault or anything though!" Molly stared wistfully at the sky, lamenting on how exactly she squandered her time downtown. Not that she had anything better to do after her morning chores.

The Wizard inched closer. Molly inched away.

Wizard looked at the sky, brooding. "You can see many stars here... At night."

"Well, yes, you can't exactly see stars during the day." Molly began to think maybe he was a little dense. "What about we go find my cat now?"

"Molly... How do you feel about stars?"

"Um, they're pretty and junk?" Molly attempted to look brooding and mysterious too, but suspected she looked more like a dork than usual.

"...We're similar, you and I," the Wizard interjected.

Molly could feel an idea bursting forth. "You mean we both like cats!"

"...Yes. I suppose that we do..."the Wizard looked slightly downtrodden and Molly couldn't fathom why.

"Right! So, um, let's find the cat!" The farmer sprinted ahead, wondering why he was getting close anyway! Weren't mythical people like him supposed to be like, suffocated by the presence of humans or something? He was oddly touchy and close by mythical-being standards.

"...I've seen him, near those bushes closer to the church before..." Molly heard Wizard comment from behind her and she commenced bolting towards said bushes. She was beyond worrying about startling her cat-buddy at this point! It wasn't the first time she'd done this, after all.

The farmer commenced searching through the foliage, carefully pawing at branches while she knelt in the dirt. The Wizard joined her, slightly farther away, though she noticed his face was red. Maybe he was getting sick. Molly wondered if magic-y types could get fevers. While she was pondering this strange revelation, the Wizard suddenly extracted a bundle of black fur from the bush. Molly thought she could hear purring and assumed it was the cat; otherwise maybe Fin really was right about him making the moves on her! Purring was rather forward though.

"Would you...like to hold him...?" Wizard cradled the cat in his arms. Molly always thought cats hated being held in funny positions, but it didn't seem too perturbed and the Wizard carefully plopped the feline into her waiting arms. Finally, she had a cat of her own to go with her other collection of eclectic animals.

"Molly... Thank you for coming."

"No problem! I'll give this guy a good home! He'll be safe and warm and happy... I won't have to worry about mice and things either!" she cuddled the purring mass of cat.

"Yes...I'm sure he will be...very happy." The Wizard smiled. Molly was shocked to witness such a rare occurrence. Usually, she'd punctuate her amusement with a jibe about his face falling off, but it hardly seemed appropriate, for some reason. "Perhaps we should leave now."

Molly nodded, oblivious to the implications of 'we'.

* * *

As it turned out, Wizard insisted walking Molly and her new pal home, which Molly found entirely unnecessary, a complaint she voiced numerous times. This wasn't the city with horrible people and murderers! Not that she was saying murderers weren't horrible people, they were just an ultra special type of horrible person that deserved their own classification! Or something.

Molly decided to do what she did best: protest. More. And louder.

"It isn't that far, y'know. Plus, chivalry is dead! Then again, for all I know, you've been alive long enough to remember the dark ages." She pondered as they walked down the path to her farm.

Wizard looked a little perturbed by that. "I haven't been alive... That long..."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you don't look a day over one-hundred-and-something, right? That still doesn't answer my other question! You're being as stubborn as, well, me!" Usually Molly would pause and listen for a retort from Finn, but he had been mysteriously absent for most of the day.

The Wizard looked torn. "I can be... quite stubborn. Do you not want me here... that badly, Molly?"

Now Molly had gone and done it. She'd crossed the threshold of being smart-mouthed and come off as rude. Not that it didn't happen often, per se, just that she wanted some friends here in Castanet and you don't exactly make or keep friends by being a gigantic jerkface.

"No, no! Of course I don't mind! Did I say I did? No... It's just, um, strange! Coming from you and all." she replied, flustered.

"I didn't think it was so odd to you... I apologize." the Wizard informed Molly, monotone as usual.

Molly glanced quickly for an out, but her farm was only just coming into view and she doubted that sprinting there and leaving Wizard squarely on the dirt road would make her seem like an even better person. She thought about the ways she could possibly mend the conversation until she assured herself it was his fault for being dodgy in the first place. Not to mention this conversation was going in an awkward enough place anyway.

"Geez, it isn't your fault, don't apologize." She sighed, "I just sort of wanted to know why, that's all. People where I come from don't just walk you home out of the goodness of their hearts! I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to like, corner me and turn me into a frog or some fancy food, whatever wizards and witches do with people! I guess it's not like you'd tell me if that were the case anyway..."

The Wizard chose not to answer that particular statement. Slowly but surely, Molly was certain he was learning the strange social survival tactics that came into play when she was around. The ball of fur in her arms was blissfully unaware of any altercations happening around it. Needless to say, the farmer nearly leapt at her front doorway as soon as she came close enough to make it seem appropriate.

"Yeah, so..." Molly rubbed the back of her neck, trying to think up a suitable way to ditch the Wizard, "Thanks! Um, bye!" She fiddled with a key in her pocket and scrambled to open her farmhouse door.

"Molly..." the voice behind her uttered, softly.

She swore, trying to force open her door as she adjusted the cat in her arms.

"Molly. Listen..." the voice told her more firmly this time.

"Yes? What is it? I can't seem to get this thing open..." she continued to fiddle, cursing whoever made the door so darn hard to open. Didn't they think about owners trying to beat a hasty exit?

The Wizard grabbed her shoulder. Not roughly, but enough to startle her into actually looking in his direction. Molly searched her repertoire for something to make light of the situation, but couldn't find a single thing to say.

"Is something... Wrong?"

Well, other than her needing to save the entire island, no. But he didn't need to know that. In fact, she much just preferred if everyone thought she was jittery and weird, of her own making, than pawn it off on fantastical island creatures.

"Not exactly, no. Aren't I always like this? What about you, getting all handsy! Sheesh..." she stared at him pointedly, wondering if she should attempt the lock again.

He looked slightly put off, and red again. Molly chalked it up to the mutant wizard-cold.

"Molly..."

"Yes, that's my name! You're saying it an awful lot today. Pretty soon you'll speak without stuttering and I won't know what to do with you!" the farmer informed him, feeling less obliged to barge through her own door.

"...You should...visit me more often... I enjoy your company." Molly noted that even his ears had turned a nice shade of pink. Molly wondered if this is the part where he was about to blind-side her with a blunt object in order to cart her away to somewhere. Possibly to ravish her, if the raunchy romance novels she used to collect were any indication.

After a few moments, it became obvious that the Wizard was really just waiting awkwardly for some sort of approval. Molly decided to abandon her skepticism and give him an affirming nod. "I'll visit your smelly Wizard pad lots and lots! But I still need to get this door open..."

The Wizard seemed pleased. Molly assumed it was because he knew her well enough to confirm this interaction as a nominal step in their odd, cat-finding partnership. With a sense of purposefulness, he brushed past her and turned the knob. The door hadn't even been locked. In her odd urgency, Molly had somehow managed to make a jumble of opening the finicky object.

Flustered, Molly made a few interesting noises before mumbling something that resembled a 'thank you' and turned to push the door open.

Wizard interrupted her by striding toward her, planting a peck on her cheek. His face was such a bright red that she could almost swear she could feel the heat radiating from him. Luckily, she was saved from any nonsense she may have uttered by Wizard bidding her farewell and making a hasty retreat down the path to town.

Molly mumbled something about violating personal boundaries and plunked her cat down to acclimatize to his new surroundings. Finn appeared shortly after her arrival, looking every bit as smug as he could manage. Usually, Molly would find an expression like the sprite's disturbing; however, he lacked the height to set off the alarm bells in her head. She recently found that she had trouble taking anything that wasn't much taller than her forefinger very seriously.

"I saw that! I saw that! I knew it!" the farmer supposed Finn must have been excited; the cat was passed off as entirely unremarkable.

"Knew it?" began Molly, "How did you..."

"I watched!" the sprite proudly announced.

"You watched?" Molly had an inkling, but was entirely too alarmed to address her misgivings.

Fin beamed. "We all did!"

"You _all_ did?" Now she was convinced. Really, what other being had the capability to probe into island life nearly so much?

"Yep! I went and saw the Harvest Goddess. We had popcorn and everything." Finn chirped, happy to be included in some sort of deranged sprite bonding experience.

Molly spent the rest of her evening contemplating if it was possible to get away with murder if regular humans couldn't see the victim. She found, however, that cats could indeed see the sprites and that they made fabulous, and cheap, cat entertainment.


	7. Chapter 7

By now, Molly was used to be woken up early (for some reason, people thought all farmers like to be up and about at six in the morning) so a knock at her door at any particular god-forsaken hour was entirely unsurprising. What surprised her was the feminine figure that greeted her.

"Good morning!" chirped the Witch, looking entirely too chipper and more put-together than anyone had a right to in the wee hours of the morning. It wasn't fair!

Molly suddenly felt self-conscious of her bedraggled nightgown and messy hair.

Wait, what she was doing on the door step anyway? Had she gotten the house number wrong or something? Actually, considering Molly lived on a large farm away from the rest of the population, even the farmer had her doubts about that. Still, Molly couldn't fathom how she would have the nerve to even turn up near here after drugging her! To top things off, it looked like she had a package in her hand, which obviously meant the Witch was up to no good!

"What are you doing here and what's that in your hand?" she asked, though she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know.

The Witch beamed. "Hey Molly, I baked a pie! Can you believe it? It's perfect and I know you want some..."

That was awfully optimistic. Especially considering it was this particular Fugue Forest dweller.

Molly pretended to look thoughtful. "Well, considering you poisoned me with a pie before... Yes, yes I can believe it and no, I don't want some."

"B-But doesn't it look delicious?" the Witch sputtered.

Well, maybe just a little, but that wasn't the point! Molly didn't want to end up in some coma or popping pain pills for days again!

"That's what I thought last time! Stop beating around the bush! I have farmer-y things to do today!" Actually, it was too late in the season for her to plant any more crops and the few stragglers that hadn't been harvested were watered by the small downpour during the night.

Come to think of it, the day wasn't shaping up to be particularly nice. That just left feeding the animals, which was a task unto itself, and she could kick back and do relatively nothing. Or she could mine or cook, or go showering people with gifts, but none of that sounded as appealing as spending quality time with her cat and some tea! Not that the Witch needed to know any of that, of course!

"I promise there are no potions in it or anything! It's a perfectly normal pie! Really, I baked it because I'm sorry for last time!" the Witch pleaded, to little avail.

"I'm supposed to believe that? Your last pie knocked me out before! I woke up in the Wizard's _house._" Molly felt particularly unhappy about that last part. Thinking back on it was a little embarrassing, not to mention the horrible after effects of whatever was in that concoction!

The magic-user frowned. "Well, I see that turned out well for you!"

"Is this something the entire island sees? Because I sure don't and I'm not eating _anything_ you make!" Now Molly was just frustrated. Did the Witch really come here to even some sort of personal grievance? And why did everyone think she was somehow involved with the Wizard? Did the Sprites do some sort of weekly live broadcast on the local channel?

...That couldn't be it; she would have seen the re-runs. But something was up!

"...So invite me in and I'll eat some of it too! That'll prove there's nothing wrong with it!" The Witch was persistent, Molly gave her that.

"I got it! Whatever that is, it contains some super secret ingredient that only works on humans and not witches! I'm on to you!"

"Molly, just invite me in, okay!"

"No way! I want nothing to do with you and your...illicit drugs!"

"...Did I mention its _pumpkin_ pie?"

Oh, the Witch was crafty! Making her forget her past turmoil with her absolute favourite indgredient!

"...Fine, I'll let you in this once, but don't you try anything! Or else!"

* * *

"I told you not to get involved with that nasty guy!" the Witch Princess lectured through a mouthful of pie.

Molly tentatively chewed a piece of pie. Thus far, it was completely delicious and had no discernible negative effects. That is, other than calories, probably.

"Is that what this is about?" she ventured between bites.

"Yes! And you should feel honoured you get to eat my snacks, by the way."

"What is it with everyone lately? He was just helping me catch my kitty!" She pointed to her cat, which was sleeping on the bed. It was content after a long evening of sprite harassment. Finn was glowering from his sock drawer.

"Nuh uh! I don't believe you! You're after him!" the Witch pointed her fork squarely at Molly.

"What do you mean 'I'm after him'? Does it _look_ like I'm after him? We just had a mutual agenda that revolved around a cat!"

"And what about how he came and got you from my hut!"

"What about it! _You _put some fancy food-y spell on me! What's your problem, are you into that guy or something? 'Cause this is getting ridiculous!" The nerve! Barging into Molly's house with pie and bribing her into confessing something weird.

"No! I just have your best interests in mind!"

Molly couldn't help but giggle.

"I really do! I don't want you to be all mopey over that guy! I like you, y'know!"

"You could have fooled me..." Molly couldn't figure these magical entities out. Was knocking her out cold some term of endearment?

The Witch played with a morsel on her plate. "I'm sorry, all right? It wasn't supposed to happen like that!"

"Then what was supposed to happen?" The farmer really couldn't fathom what intended use, other than knocking her out, could be. Molly didn't think she was even being dense this time either!

"That's a secret!" exclaimed the Witch, "Just, um, know that I didn't mean for that to happen, okay?"

"Fine, I guess..." Though Molly wasn't really sure what she was forgiving.

"Good! So let's be friends again! And you can stop wasting time with that guy and spend all that time with me instead!" the Witch looked like she'd won some nominal victory, which unnerved Molly just a bit.

Molly finished chewing another large forkful of pie. "Hey, he's still my friend! I don't get what it is with you two."

"He's just a...no good fugue mushroom stealing scoundrel! And I bet he's after you now too! That's what it is!" replied the Witch, plate forgotten.

"I don't know what he's after, but I doubt it's me." Molly shrugged.

"You're not very smart, Molly," the Witch informed her, "even by human standards."

* * *

Evidently, Molly did not take the Witch's advice into consideration. In fact, she did quite the opposite. Really, the Witch should have known that the best way to get her to do something was to tell her she should be doing the opposite.

It was human nature, or something.

While she was glad that she could count the Witch among her friends again (or as much of a friend you could call someone that drugged you in a hut in the middle of nowhere), that didn't mean the Witch had any say in the company she kept! Obviously, this meant the Wizard.

This is why, after the Witch left after a couple hours of watching The Sprite Rangers, the farmer decided to visit her suddenly (and overtly) close friend, the Wizard. Maybe the Witch Princess' entire problem was just that she was in love with Molly's television, an apparent rarity among villagers. Molly could understand that.

The Wizard agreed that her assessment of the Witch was plausible; she did have an uncomfortable fondness for The Sprite Rangers, but doubted that had much to do with her renewed efforts to win Molly over.

"She just wants you because...you're my friend, as well..." the Wizard took a tentative sip of coffee; Molly, seated directly across from him, was still enthusiastically scooping sugar and cream into her cup.

The farmer took a careful sip once she was satisfied that her drink was going to taste more like candy than coffee. This particular drink was still a novelty; back when she lived at home, someone always tried to limit her consumption. She couldn't imagine why. With the right amount of sugar and cream, it was entirely delicious and made her hum with even more energy!

"So what? Are you jealous or something? Am I some kind of trophy you guys are after? Like a fugue mushroom or something?" Molly scrunched up her nose, none too fond of the idea. It allowed her incredible access to free food and drinks, but she wanted some kind of illusion of regular friendships!

The Wizard half-smiled and stared into his drink; Molly was shocked at this new expression. "Maybe...I am a bit...jealous."

"D-Did you just make a joke? An honest-to-goodness attempt at being jovial, and smile too? I'm shocked; I didn't think you had any humour at all! I thought you were just some stick-up-the rear! Um, I mean that in the nicest way possible, really!" the farmer spouted, trying not to upend the table or something silly in sheer surprise.

The man across from her just shook his head and gazed with the same uncharacteristic smirk into his coffee cup.

After overcoming her initial mirth, Molly settled back down to her drink and her chair and suddenly felt a little awkward, like she always did after being met with silence. Why did she have to be the one to do all the talking, anyway? So she gazed around the room in an attempt to find a fruitful conversation piece. The Wizard's house was virtually the same as every other time, right down to the smell; however, unlike most times, he actually had the blinds open so she could see out his solitary window. For someone that loved admiring the stars, he sure didn't let much light in other than the observatory. Maybe it appealed to the villager's notion of fortune-teller aesthetics.

"So... I guess it's getting pretty late in the season, huh? Pretty soon it'll be winter. I think my crops are on track and everything; I've even done some harvesting! I guess I'm getting better at this farming thing!" Molly chirped as she watched the pale gray clouds float over the mountains through the window.

"Ah, I missed the Moon Festival... How disappointing..." the Wizard sounded particularly regretful.

"Yeah, well, if it makes you feel better I missed it too! Hamilton came and told me but, um, I just kind of ignored him. I think it was last week or something." Molly did that incredibly often, now that she thought about it.

"We will have to go... next year. Together." He sounded more hopeful this time.

Molly didn't have the heart to tell him she wasn't particularly interested, so she nodded in agreement.

The Wizard looked content and removed himself from the table in order to grab the coffee pot from its nearby stand. With sharp precision, he poured himself another cup of coffee and wordlessly stepped beside Molly's seat and topped off her sugary concoction. He lingered as if he had something to say, but stepped away before forming any words and took his seat across from her again.

"...The crop festival is soon... Are you entering it, Molly?"

"They have one of those? Really? When?" the farmer frowned, Hamilton was slacking!

"It is... the twenty-seventh, I believe... They offer prizes... Fertilizer, for the best crops..." It looked like he was straining to remember the details; Molly supposed it was hard to keep track of all the festivities! Because, you know, there were so many...

The farmer hummed to herself, "I really wish I had known about this sooner! I've shipped most of my crops. I guess I can see what pops up in the next few days though!"

"Ah, so you will... be entering then?"

"Yeah, I mean, I may as well! I'm a farmer after all! These things are expected of me! And I have to let everyone know which farm is the most super duper ever!"

It was decided! Molly was going to show everyone that she was an amazing farmer! Never mind that she didn't have any crops yet, it would all fall into place, right? Well, it's not like little details like that had stopped her before!

"Perhaps... I will accompany you, then... "

"I didn't know you grew crops, Wizard!" Molly didn't think he really did much other than tell fortunes, spend copious amounts of time in front of a telescope, and rescue cats.

He rubbed the back of his head and looked a little flushed. "...I meant as... support... for you."

"Kind of like my own personal cheer squad? That's great!" Usually Molly had Finn, but he had been a rather poor supporter lately. He barely even followed her around since she'd brought home the cat! She almost missed him now that he wasn't around as much.

The Wizard shook his head, but Molly swore he was smiling at least a teensy bit under all that shaggy hair! "I suppose, you could call it... something like that. I'll come by... the morning of the festival... then?"

"Sure! I can't wait to show everyone my mad farmer skills!"

Molly downed her coffee and rubbed her hands together gleefully. Nobody back home believed she had it in her to be a great farmer. In fact, most people on Castanet could barely believe it. But when she showed up (with her own one-Wizard supporter, to boot) and won this festival thing, she'd be a proven farmer! Now all that was left was to harvest one single amazing crop... in three days.


	8. Interlude

The first time he saw her, he thought she was a strange choice.

She was a farmer, with no experience and a large body that was poorly conducive to the hardships of her profession. Her friendliness was off-putting and he often found himself pondering the fate of the island that was left in her barely-capable hands. The Harvest Goddess, he assured himself, had incredibly poor taste in the saviour of the island.

He watched from afar, still pessimistic, as she rang the Red Bell and restored fire to the land. Idle town gossip allowed him to see he was not the only one with reservations, though no one knew her true purpose on the island. It was increasingly hard for the boisterous farmer to obtain support from the island's residents.

Undeterred by what anyone thought of her, the farmer ploughed on and created a thriving, if somewhat unorthodox, farm. She persisted, yet made few friends, and continued to breathe new life into the island.

Their first meeting, and many subsequent others, were awkward.

He had resolved to make particular care not to open his home to any personage, and refused fortunes to all until he was certain of Molly's progress. In those first few weeks, he would leave only at night and take particular care no one saw him. Somehow, she had spotted him on a midnight jaunt to the church grounds.

He, being the caretaker of few words and she being a person of many, clashed spectacularly. The farmer, being inquisitive by nature, had asked him numerous questions. Some were acceptable when coming across a midnight stranger, others were undeniably unsavoury. He told her little, and found he was capable of very poor amounts of speech in her presence, and was left fumbling for any words at all.

"What do you mean 'Wizard'?" she had questioned numerous times in this first altercation, "That's a terrible name! And I thought my parents were cruel..." Molly had told him coarsely.

Yet somehow, he managed to stutter out his occupation as fortune teller and was berated mercilessly for the hours he kept and her need for his talents. His first impression of this encounter was that Molly was a creature of loud extremities and often poor judgement. And though he was not a bastion of social eloquence, she was even less so.

He did not see her again until after the Yellow Bell was rung and earth returned to the island.

* * *

After the restoration of this power, Molly made a new habit of visiting him. Her friendliness was tactile to him, new in ways he was unaccustomed to and did not fully understand. In the depths of his mind, he struggled to relearn this notion of human camaraderie. And though he was often annoyed by her antics, she did not give up when met by his stony silence. This determination was frustrating, but endearing, to the Wizard who had spent so much of his long life alone.

The farmer was an enigma. She liked coffee, cats, and had a fleeting interest in books filled with adventure. Slowly, he found more and more of his voice after each of her visits. She was so very brash and often ignorant; he could not help himself from speaking the jumbled mess that resided in his mind. The farmer seemed to note this, and pursued to coax more words from him with unabashed enthusiasm.

Molly also instilled in him a feeling he had not experienced in ages: loneliness. They were so different from one another, and it was this that made their fledgling friendship compelling. He often found he missed her presence.

When Molly stumbled across the Witch Princess, he worried about how the similarities between the women would impact his own relationship with the farmer. It was a new kind of selfishness he could not remember experiencing since his barest memories of youth. Though he resolved to remedy this deformity in his usually calm demeanour, the magic user often found his thoughts wavering to the possibility of losing Molly to one more suited to her nature.

For the good of the island he helped Molly in her endeavour to restore the Witch Princess to her true form, and found her slowly slipping from his grasp. She visited him less after breaking the spell, and more often their meetings were centered on the cat at the church grounds that they had a mutual interest in. Their topics of conversation involved the newest person in Molly's life, and the oldest in the Wizard's. Jealousy was another sudden reaction he had not felt in many years and it vexed him mercilessly; as was the anger felt towards the farmer for grasping at friendship with the Witch Princess.

Often times, he found himself wandering into Fugue Forest after her. These trips, he told himself, served dual purposes. One was keeping an eye on Molly, who often lacked the foresight to keep herself from harm and the second was to collect the precious Fugue Mushrooms. The farmer was noisy, and easy to follow, and chattered incessantly with an invisible companion; more than likely a sprite.

"But Finn! She feeds me! There's no way she's a bad person!" were frequent utterances of the farmer as she navigated the familiar twists and turns of the forest.

If only she knew good people often have misguided purposes.

* * *

He counted himself lucky that he stumbled after her the day the Witch Princess set about her usual pranks. The flux of magic while Molly was present was unmistakable. His doubts about the friendship between farmer and witch were confirmed in the few nauseating seconds he entered the house and gazed at Molly's unconscious body, his startled heart beating fast.

The Wizard raised his voice to the Witch Princess for the first time that day, an unnerving behaviour to both magic users. He had railed at her in broken words about her carelessness; she attempted to assure him of her good intentions to set Molly into a more prime physical condition capable of saving the island.

He didn't care, mind reeling with the proper ingredients to help Molly emerge from her Witch-induced stupor.

Tucking an arm under the farmer's legs and wrapping another under her shoulders, he silently cursed her weight and her stupidity while whispering a transportation spell in clear, long, sentences.

* * *

It was only after he had set her amongst his mess of bed and books, full of magical herbs to coax her from sleep, that he realized he may have a different sort of affection for the farmer. As with many of his newfound emotions, he was at a loss with what to do with them. They were suffocating him, like a miasma he was forced to fill his lungs with after every breath.

Once, in another life, he had known the world of lovers. He was young then and could remember very little of the processes of his relative youth. He had long ago counted himself above the impulses of regular humans, a result of his extended life. Relationships of that nature were a distraction he had resolved to abandon long ago.

This farmer was loud, obnoxious, and hardly of unparalleled beauty. Perhaps, in freeing himself from the confines of mortals, his very previous perceptions of the opposite sex had been severed. It was nothing less than uncomfortable to entertain such thoughts.

He told himself to think no more on the matter.

* * *

Molly's visits became more frequent, despite all her unfounded protests about inappropriateness. Though he made every effort to dissuade her and distance himself from her, the farmer still persisted in her pursuits of friendship. Lately, she had been bringing coffee and various snacks from the Inn. He suspected that, though she had collected the wishes of much of the town, she still had few friends.

The Wizard was grateful for her companionship, despite himself. With the casual slowness that permeated his life, the magic user found he was growing ever fonder of Molly's strange antics and presence in his life.

This fondness was why, when she made a disappearance once more, he found himself bereft of the contentment he felt before. Gazing into his crystal ball allowed him to verify her safety, yet still he felt himself growing disappointed as each day passed with no presence of the woman. He consoled himself by watching how busy she was, compelled once more to save the island. Once, he went so far as to visit her on the farm, gift in hand, as she had done so many times before at his home.

He was met with an unaccustomed distaste and left questioning his own actions ceaselessly for many hours afterwards. Molly was still a puzzle to him.

After much of his usual deliberation, he decided that he would resume his advances, unsure of what progression in their relationship he was striving for. Molly was entirely unhelpful; showing equal parts friendliness, resistance, and plain ignorance. He had trouble believing how truly dense she was, even for a human. The Wizard's attempts to meet Molly outside of their usual confines were met with misinterpretation or Molly's favourite distraction: the church ground's cat.

He played to this distraction and mulled over how their mutual concern for the feline could bring him closer to Molly.

In his younger days, his master had praised him as a strategist, though he found he often over thought Molly. She was a specimen of random thoughts in motion. Her mood swings were nonsensical, whereas he embodied the very essence of logic.

* * *

Sometime while on his knees searching for the scruffy cat in the dark, Molly chirping happily at his side, Wizard decided that these swirling emotions, thoughts, and impulses that had plagued him were romantic in nature. Deep down, he had known this all along. He could not remember this feeling, but knew it as unmistakable. They were both lonely, on some level. Perhaps he more so than her; and had found each other to their mutual benefit. The Wizard was convinced of this fact.

It was not divine intervention, such things he knew were a myth disrupted through centuries and projected as truth. The Harvest Goddess and the Harvest King worked tangible miracles, and had no time for playing with the complexities of was no fate that had brought them together, only circumstance. They had little in common, yet that did not matter at all. The Wizard, though he knew himself as immortal, still possessed the intricacies of a human heart.

And so he played the role he was unaccustomed to, walking her home with misplaced gentry and leaving her little room to mistake his actions before scrambling off as if he were a man centuries younger. Yet still she resisted, though he noticed with curiosity her visits increased once more and became a precursor to other events involving him in her foreign life.

For now, the Wizard was sated with this progression, though his thoughts were continually invaded by her presence.


	9. Chapter 8

"This is it? _This _is the Harvest Festival? I thought there would be more people to witness my mad farmer skills! Or at least a hot pot or something that everyone contributes to and we could get free food..." For once, Molly had arrived promptly on time for the festival; mostly due to the Wizard's interference.

However, the farmer was greatly dismayed by what she saw. All the Harvest Festivals she had the fortune of happening upon were all much livelier than this one. As far as she could tell, Castanet's festival consisted of Mayor Hamilton sitting behind a booth strewn with papers and looking jovial. There was also a couple other small booths and precious few people even milling about the area.

It didn't look like anyone was particularly interested in giving thanks for the harvest.

"There...used to be a hot pot." The Wizard informed Molly, "one year a...prankster...put in a poisonous mushroom. Now, there isn't one..."

"Was it the Witch?"

He shook his head, "... No one knows..."

Molly stared at her paltry eggplant; it looked a little worse for wear after its prolonged time in her refrigerator. Her only chance of winning was probably by sheer lack of participants. This prospect was actually viable, given the poor showing. Hamilton had also informed her of the various different parts of the contests, thus splitting the participation.

The farmer wondered why exactly there were so many different portions of the contest, given how few people actually showed up.

"Molly, the judging..." the voice at her side reminded her, not unlike Finn usually did. The sprite was actually blissfully quiet, flitting about from stand to stand.

She hoped the Wizard wouldn't pick up that habit too.

"I know, I know. The judging for the Vegetable Contest is going to begin." Molly, eggplant in hand, dumped the vegetable rather unceremoniously onto Hamilton's table.

The Wizard lagged rather awkwardly behind. Molly didn't blame him; Hamilton sometimes gave her the heebie-jeebies too!

"Ah, yes!" Hamilton exclaimed as Molly retreated from the table. "Well, it seems we are ready to begin the judging of the Vegetable Contest!" The Mayor announced this to the entire five or so people present, before promptly trotting off to converse with Colleen and Hayden.

Molly and the Wizard remained a respectful distance from the whispering judges.

"Hey," the farmer nudged the Wizard beside her, "how long does the judging usually take?"

"It... has been a very long time since I have attended... this festival..." The man replied, brows furrowed.

Molly took the opportunity to unroll the blanket she had stowed away in her rucksack and plunked herself on top of it. The Wizard followed suit, dropping down and pulling his legs to his chest.

"I hate waiting. Doesn't Hamilton know that there are other things I could be doing with my time?" she mumbled, "Not to mention Anissa keeps giving us these strange looks."

"I'm sorry you're not... enjoying yourself... This was my... idea." The magic user looked rather apologetic.

Molly felt slightly guilty. It wasn't his fault that festivals were so darn boring!

"Geez, don't worry about it! I thought once Hamilton's son came back, maybe the festivals would get a little more interesting, but that doesn't seem to be the case. That guy is even more serious than you anyway! Maybe Hamilton adopted him or something, they're nothing alike."

"I didn't think... I was that serious..."

"Don't worry about it. I guess compared to me everyone is serious!" Molly informed him cheerily. Finn stopped mid-flight to give her a strange look before resuming his spritely athletics.

The judges were still deliberating and Molly was getting very obviously restless.

"Did you... want to shop for seeds?" the Wizard asked her in his usual monotone.

"I don't think so, it'll be winter soon. Besides, I'm flat broke until I get the money from my crops. It better be lots, I've worked more this month than, well, probably ever!

The Wizard gave her a warm smile. "It's good... to work hard..."

"I guess so, but I still hate it." Molly drew her knees even further to her chest and hugged them. "What do farmers do in the winter, anyway? I haven't figured that one out yet."

"If... the winter is mild... there are still crops... Buckwheat and herbs..."

The farmer was dismayed. She was hoping to have a viable excuse to slack off! But the animals still needed to eat, heck, she still needed to eat! So Molly supposed it wasn't such a bad thing that she could try and work through the winter. Didn't the ground freeze though?

"Now to announce the winner!" boomed Hamilton across the event grounds.

Molly shot to her feet feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline. Her companion rose shortly after, gathering the blanket on his way up and rolling it into a tidy ball. Finn stopped his furious circles and fluttered rather comically above Mayor Hamilton's head.

"The winner," Hamilton paused and gazed happily at the small crowd, "is Craig! Congratulations! Second place is Ruth and third place is Anissa!"

"This is rigged!" Molly whispered furiously, "Craig wasn't even here until, like, five minutes ago! And they're all one family! What is this bull-"

Finn fluttered back to her shoulder opposite the Wizard and gave her a nearly-comical warning stare.

"Would you like to... leave now?" whispered the familiar masculine voice.

Molly nodded furiously, still upset at the outcome of the contest.

The Wizard moved his arm casually around Molly's side, making only the barest touch as he discreetly corralled her towards the exit of the festival grounds. Finn railed at the farmer about manners amid the post-victory chatter of the winning contests clambering to the podium as the couple bid their hasty retreat.

"What now?" Molly mumbled as soon as the celebration faded from view, "I thought that event was going to kill at least the better portion of the day! I even got up extra early to take care of my chores!" she sulked.

Stupid small town contests with their rigged votes! It wasn't fair. Nobody liked her or her produce and she was never going to get any recognition for her hard farmer-y work!

"I could... make us coffee?" The magic user offered, with a small smile.

The farmer shuffled along the dirt path with a pronounced pout.

"You always make us coffee, I feel sort of bad." She informed him, though she knew her own coffee making skills weren't exactly up to snuff. However, she did have her own coffee maker; perhaps that was a step in the right direction.

"You don't need to feel bad... I don't mind..." her companion informed her with a small smile, as he alternated his gaze from her, to the narrow path that connected Molly's farm to the other surrounding fields.

The sky was quickly clouding over, unsurprising since winter was fast approaching. It created an odd sense of foreboding in Molly, causing her to shudder in the chill breeze of the afternoon and cross her arms in an unhappy attempt to seek more warmth from her beat-up red jacket.

"It's a long walk back to town, and it's still early. I guess we could have coffee at my house, but don't get any funny ideas! And you'll still have to make the coffee! I'm no good at that." Molly informed the Wizard, who consented to this arrangement with obvious mirth written across his features.

Finn stopped near Molly's face and suppressed a very obvious laugh. She resisted the urge to grab for the smarty-pants sprite's face.

* * *

The snow started to fall minutes after the pair entered Molly's house, which was blissfully clean, the farmer was proud to boast. The Wizard was unperturbed by the slow-falling little flakes, and set to work in her kitchen, as if he belonged there. Molly occupied herself by preparing a small snack of sweets for them, and some treats for her eagerly mewling cat that had made its current mission to rub as much hair as possible onto the Wizard's legs.

Snacks prepared, Molly set them on her beat-up old table and turned on her equally bedraggled television for the weather report. The Wizard soon joined her and they sat in amiable silence, a rare occurrence for the boisterous farmer.

"I hate the snow, and the cold, and pretty much everything about winter." Muttered Molly, as the droning voice on the television reminded her to expect increased snowfall and to harvest any remaining crops. Finn, who had taken to a perch on top of her bookshelf beside the aforementioned TV, nodded in agreement. It was perhaps the first time they had ever agreed on anything.

"Molly... " the Wizard started, after pouring their drinks, though he stopped mid-sentence.

The woman toyed with a sugar cube before plunking it in her drink. "What is it? You haven't done that in a while, y'know, trail off and stuff." She informed him, taking a long sip and pretending to be enamoured with the weather news.

"It's nothing..." he finished lamely.

She eyed him curiously. "I really hate it when people say that. Obviously, when you say 'nothing' you mean something and just don't want to say it. Come on, you're a big, bad wizard!"

Well, actually, Molly doubted very much that he was bad or big for that matter. But you never know with the wizard-y types! They're mysterious! Though, the sudden snow was even making her feel slightly melancholy, though not enough to start sentences and not finish them!

"This is... hard for me to say..." he began again.

"What? Is my coffee that bad? I'm pretty sure we get it from the same place!"

He shook his head, "No, the coffee is good... I enjoy... the time we spend together..."

"That's all? You're just getting sentimental? I mean, um, I like spending time with you too! You make better coffee than me, somehow!" the farmer reached for a cookie.

Molly failed to see why that was worth the cardinal sin of saying 'nothing'! She thought it was going to be something more monumental. Maybe he decided he wanted the cat after all? Or he had suddenly fallen for her farmer charms? She had to admit, neither were very plausible (which was good, she did want to keep her cat, after all).

"...You don't... put enough coffee in the filter..." he smiled.

He had insulted her coffee skills! Usually, she would furiously proclaim that it would 'be on like Donkey Kong'; however even she had to concede he was probably right on that point.

The snow continued to flutter outside as they sipped their coffee, and Molly resumed her usual one-sided conversations with the usual host of two-word replies or sounds of agreement from her companion. This continued well until her second cup of coffee, when she was abruptly interrupted mid-tirade about the complexity of mining.

"Molly, we should take a walk..." the Wizard informed her.

What was he plotting? She had just told him how much she hated all things snowy and cold!

"But it's snowing, and that probably means its cold!" she protested lamely.

"I... want to talk somewhere else. The snow isn't... that bad."

"Fine, I guess. But remember I'm doing this under protest! Where are we going? I should probably feed Bess again first." she grumpily replied.

"The lighthouse. I'll meet you there at four o'clock then..."

Molly sighed. At least he helped her clean the dishes before he left.

He was right, the snow wasn't bad or accompanied by the gale force winds she thought it would be once she set foot outside. The weather was still entirely unpleasant, but Bess was surprisingly docile this afternoon and even possessed a semblance of affection for the farmer. Molly was shocked, but entirely pleased with herself.

At least something was going right today.

* * *

She was still ten minutes late to her meeting with the Wizard at the lighthouse, though she was more upset by the absurd meeting place to be very concerned about her punctuality. Why the lighthouse? All that was there was the irritating kid that tried to goad her into doing crazy things, probably for his own amusement.

If the Wizard was put off by her time of arrival, he didn't show it. In fact, he looked quite sheepish and rubbed the back of his head in apprehension as soon as he noticed her. Molly failed to see why he was suddenly nervous; they had spent all day together almost!

"...Greetings."

"Yeah, okay, what is it? It's cold out here! This better be darn good! Please don't tell me you murdered somebody or something crazy." Molly glowered at him.

"Witches and wizards don't tell people their names..." he began.

"Yes, I noticed!" the farmer interrupted.

The Wizard was undeterred, "It's said that those who know your name... can control you."

"Control you? Like some sort of pleasure slave or something? That's harsh, but um, I wouldn't flatter yourself or anything..." Molly nearly laughed at the thought.

The Wizard's face suddenly turned an intense shade of red as he rubbed the back of his head again, "...Not exactly. But I want you... to know my name... If you have feelings for me... I want to share it with you."

Molly had to admit she was caught unaware at the confession. Despite what she told herself, she knew she was far from a desirable commodity among the village men, or men in general really and in her pessimism in the romantic department chose to blatantly ignore many of the (now obvious) advances. He was her friend, of course, but this progression caught her completely off guard.

It was strange, this sudden realization that she was important in a romantic sense, to anyone. Sure, she'd had men in her life back home, but those incidences were isolated and in her teenage years. Even she had to admit she'd matured a bit since then!

"I..." she started, void of words for perhaps the first time, "You know I like you, but I wasn't going to come out and say it, and this is an entirely different sort of like, that you're talking about. This is more of a surprise-punch-in-the-face-we-might-one-day-get-married-and-stuff sort of like you're talking about."

He looked entirely dejected, "I see..."

"I mean, I don't know how you do it here in this town, or how it was back in your day or whatever... Well, I guess I do now, but usually this sort of thing is followed by a trial period! Unless someone is pregnant, I guess, but um, I'm not so it's not like we need to rush in and shotgun a wedding or something!" Molly informed him, flustered.

"...What do you propose?" he looked comically puzzled at Molly.

"That, um, I don't know, we date or something? So I can come to terms with you as more than my friend? You know, spend more time together now that I know this, go places, do things that couples do." The farmer felt her face burn as she fumbled through the suggestion; it was like the Wizard had been cooped up in his house for so long doing Wizardly things he didn't even know how contemporary courtship worked!

Molly wondered if Finn and his gang were watching these proceedings and laughing at the sheer awkwardness. That was always a kick in the teeth; when a sprite who exuded social clumsiness amongst his own kind was laughing at you fumbling awkwardly to talk with another human. Now, she was hardly a paragon of social grace, but this was a different matter entirely!

"I see... That's enough... for now. My feelings will not change. But this idea... is good. As long as... I'm not dumped." He smiled rather charmingly at Molly, who gave him a meek one in return.

"I think that's the most I've ever heard you talk at once! I'm shocked! And you even threw a funny in there! I'm a bad influence..." she flustered.

"You are... a good influence." He moved close to her and gave another awkward peck on the cheek, though this time Molly was almost prepared. "I'll... walk you back home. The snow is... unpleasant."


	10. Chapter 9

Winter was Molly's busiest season.

Though her profits in fall fell drastically short of what the Harvest Goddess informed her she needed (what profits had to do with saving the island Molly still couldn't fathom), she greatly exceeded her earnings in both spring and summer. This increase proved that through hard work, earning 60,000G in one season was entirely possible, though she failed to see how exactly she could make the expected amount in winter farming alone. Her sparse amount of animals ensured she wouldn't in animal products.

In a series of productive planning that Molly didn't even know she was capable of, she devised a plan to invest her cash in animals. She'd take a beating feeding them, but the expectation was that they would be more profitable in the coming months and she would still set aside enough money to grow a few winter crops to sell. Molly was quite proud of this plan, even though it meant she couldn't slack off for the winter and gorge herself on hot chocolate and marshmallows while watching her static-y television. Maybe she'd even have enough left over to buy some creature comforts for her house, better heating being her top priority.

On the third day of the season, Molly put her careful planning into practice and filled her poultry farm with chickens and ducks and purchased an additional cow and two sheep. She also bought as much feed as she possibly could and a few paltry crop seeds while she was at it. This set her back a pretty penny. In short, the farmer had gone from _rolling _in it, to nearly flat broke in one day and her days grew increasingly busy.

In the morning, she would feed her plethora of animals and take care of her solitary row of buckwheat; these tasks would frequently occupy her until the afternoon. With the utmost routine, she would spend this time foraging in the Fugue Forest, filling her rucksack with whatever she could sell. While she was there, Molly would spend a few tentative minutes to never more than an hour, visiting the Witch Princess.

After what usually amounted to a lecture on her life choices, the farmer would rush back to her farmhouse (often chilled to the bone) and take care of any daily necessities. These necessities usually pertained to her stomach, and making sure her house was heated enough for her cat. Usually, she spent some more time cutting the lumber she couldn't afford to purchase for her home.

It was exhausting work that left her little time to socialize.

The Wizard understood her newfound dedication to her work, though her visits decreased substantially. Often, he had taken to stopping by her home in the evenings with a dinner of some sort, otherwise he wouldn't see her. He had taken to be comfortable in her home as well, and she had often fallen into a deep slumber late in the afternoon and awoken to the smell of a home-cooked meal being prepared after her gentleman caller had let himself in, with her prior permission being granted.

Evidently, Molly had no qualms with this progression. At first his presence was awkward, but she had grown used to his quiet persistence. Gradually, she developed a different sort of affection for him, though her teasing never stopped.

The townsfolk talked gossiped mercilessly about the relationship, and how the couple was not yet married but spent so much time in each other's company. Hamilton had even gone so far as to tell her how to acquire a blue feather for marriage (Molly of course protested that it hadn't even been two weeks and _what was he thinking_). Molly didn't see why the villagers cared so much; the Harvest Goddess certainly didn't. The Wizard did not push matters either.

He always made the first moves though; Molly considered herself old fashioned like that. Finn usually made himself scarce during the visits (opting to spend time in his sock drawer rather than the Goddess' spring due to the cold weather), lest he interrupt the 'mushy stuff'. The farmer didn't know what he was worried about; she still only had a single bed after all.

All in all, aside from her financial situation (something she fervently wished would be on the upswing on the Starry Night Festival), everything was working out all too perfectly. This meant something needed to give.

And on the eighteenth day of winter, it did.

As per their new usual routine, the Wizard was cooking a dinner of buckwheat noodles and Molly, limbs aching, was dozing in her seat. They were conversing sparsely over the sizzling of the stove about a particular novel the Wizard had brought Molly to read, and she hadn't read more than a few chapters (but was trying desperately to cover that fact up and her addled mind wasn't quite up to the task of deception). However, their chat was disrupted enough by the low vibrating of her rickety house.

Disturbed, Molly focused on the weather outside her home.

The wind was swirling snow worse than she had seen during the entire season. Usually, she wouldn't have been too concerned, but given she wasn't exactly informed about the weather pattern of the land, Molly figured she should ask, just in case.

"So, um, Wizard..." she started tentatively, "Does Castanet get, like, storms in the winter?"

The man paused mid-stir, "...Yes, however the weather report did not... indicate anything for today..."

Molly continued to gaze at the white blur outside her home, "Because it's looking awfully nasty out there!"

The Wizard gave his concoction one final stir and made his way tentatively over to her window. Finn, who was seated in his usual drawer, gazed apprehensively at the angry swirls.

"I..." started the Wizard, before a loud howl resounded and Molly's home suddenly went black.

The farmer figured it was just her luck.

"Hold on, I have candles. I bet you thought I wasn't prepared!" shouted Molly as she knocked around a few belongings, trying to dig out her emergency supplies.

"...It's a good thing dinner is done..." offered the Wizard, in a display of oddly-placed mirth that Molly was slowly becoming more accustomed to experiencing.

Molly was actually glad she wasn't alone. It was one thing to lose power in the summer, but quite another to lose it in the winter! At least she wasn't about to die alone in her farmhouse with her cat and an annoying Harvest Sprite!

She struck a match and lit one of her candles, filling the room with a dim light. The Wizard dutifully brought over dinner soon after.

"Now what..." muttered Molly as she slurped noisily, and received her only reply from the furry shape under the table.

She was suddenly worried for the animals, but consoled herself by thinking that they had more than enough food and their housing units were, in all honesty, better constructed than her own.

The Wizard looked as if he was going to say something, but didn't quite have the nerve.

"You can't let him go back out there, Molly!" Finn informed her from across the room, and she resisted the urge to stare at him accusingly.

She wasn't a heartless monster! Though the situation wasn't exactly the way she wanted to force her relationship forward. They hadn't exactly gotten that close yet, but she wasn't going to ignore divine intervention on the part of the elements.

"Well, um, if you're comfortable staying here, I'm not going to force you out there. But I don't exactly have a couch, and there's just that single bed... So it'll be squishy, but I'm okay with that if you are, I guess?" offered Molly lamely, glad that the dim light hid her embarrassment.

Had anyone ever told her that she would someday be sleeping with a Wizard, Molly would have called them crazy. Then again, the same could be said of conversing with Harvest Sprites and growing crops to save an island.

"...I am fine with that decision... as long as you are..." he told her softly.

The Witch Princess was going to ream her out for this one, and if her house didn't implode and she didn't freeze to death, the townsfolk would have a field day if they found out (which they usually did, somehow). Molly was sure it was the meddling Harvest Sprites; otherwise Hamilton had hidden cameras in her house.

"Well, we don't really have any other options, not that I mean that in a bad way or anything." Molly shrugged, though she was sure he couldn't see her.

They busied themselves with finishing the rest of their meal, after which the Wizard took another of Molly's candles with him into the kitchen so that he could deposit the dishes in her sink and clean as best as possible in the dark. The farmer spent her time scrounging for extra blankets, dismayed to find most covered in cat hair. Finn gave her an accusing look from his perch above where she was rummaging.

"...You should invest in a fireplace... these storms can happen often... this season..." offered the voice from the kitchen, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, it would be handy. I've been meaning to get one, this house loses heat so fast and I hate the cold!" Molly laughed awkwardly.

"...It would be good for hot cocoa... and cooking as well..." the masculine voice in the kitchen informed her.

Their banter continued about the positives and negatives of a fireplace, and Molly told herself that one would be her first purchase as soon as she could afford it. House extension be darned, heat was more important and she didn't relish the thought of another night without heat! She was incredibly thankful for the extra blankets, however, which she tossed on the bed haphazardly.

"Well, um, I'm going to sleep... I'm exhausted. Farmer life sucks." Molly attempted, as her companion made his way beside her, rubbing the back of his neck.

They removed little, though Molly felt herself becoming increasingly less apprehensive after a few accidental elbowing as they struggled to become comfortable with the arrangement. The cat, as per usual, took the least opportune moment to join them and take up the most space. The Wizard was unperturbed.

"Um, good night," offered Molly, already dozing with the added body heat, "I guess I should buy that double bed..."


	11. Chapter 10

The night of winter eighteenth had been an odd turning point for Molly and the Wizard. They were more comfortable with each other, and coincidentally, by the end of the season Molly had bought both a double bed and had a fireplace built. Dale asked her blissfully few questions; Luke however had prodded her rather relentlessly, but with good humour.

The farmer was still among the working poor, but her farm was flourishing. Molly's animals were happy, though her crops were a complete bust, the initial plants being completely decimated by the storm and her subsequent attempt being squelched by another storm as well. It was after her second attempt that she opted to instead focus solely on her animals for the remainder of the season, it being too late for her to attempt any more crops until spring anyway. The Wizard had remained a constant fixture on her farm, leaving only a few days a week for his home in town.

The Witch Princess abhorred this development; despite Molly keeping it as much of a secret as she could, one of the witch's particular early morning attempts to greet the farmer (and probably utilize her cable) ended with mortification. This unremarkable occurrence quickly turned into a hilarious shouting match on Molly's front doorstep after the drowsy Wizard greeted his counterpart in what passed as sleepwear. Molly was taking care of her early morning chores and heard the distinct cursing and screaming, followed by accusations that he was 'stealing her Molly'. Any attempts to mediate the situation were impossible as the Witch flew back to Fugue Forest.

The farmer still attempted to visit her in the forest, which turned out equal parts effective and ineffective depending on the Witch's mood. But Molly tried and that was the point!

When spring finally rolled around, Molly was surprised at how much her animal products had earned her. It wasn't enough to meet the requirements of the Harvest Goddess; however it again allowed her to make the necessary improvements on her barn, coop and invest as much as possible in crops and grass.

By the end of this season, Molly hated farming and hard work more than ever, but had so many crops to harvest that her Wizard house fixture was soon relegated to crop harvester so that she could ship all of her produce. The Wizard didn't seem to mind, and in fact seemed more content, as was Molly.

They attended the Flower Festival together, much to the amusement of Hamilton and fuelled the gossip of the villagers further. The Harvest Sprites however, were losing their interest, to Molly's delight. The Animal Festival at the end of spring even proved to be worthwhile for Molly, netting her a win in the Livestock contest (and the concession that perhaps the festivals weren't as rigged as she thought). The telltale sign of her success came shortly after the contest, when her earnings totalled more than she needed to earn what the Harvest Goddess dubbed a 'hero' title.

On the morning of the first day of summer, Molly was woken up by Finn furiously yelling at her to make her way up to the summit of Mount Garmon. The Wizard was nowhere to be found, but Molly was used to this and rather unperturbed.

"I don't get why you couldn't have waited another hour. Just one! That's when my alarm goes off, you know that! And you know I hate hiking." she protested, as she manoeuvred through the mine at dawn. "I think you're just being a jerk. It's because Overlord gets to sleep in the bed, isn't it?"

"...I hope you're talking about the cat, Molly! Because my innocent ears don't need to hear that sort of weird human stuff if you're not..." Finn informed Molly as he flitted about the mine.

The farmer opted not to answer him and glowered in relative silence. Stupid Harvest Sprites and their early morning shenanigans!

By the time Molly reached the summit of the mountain, the Harvest Goddess and Sprites were vibrating with anticipation.

"What took you so long!" they asked in unison, reminding Molly why exactly she hated the little buggers.

"I could have been here hours earlier if you little jerks had teleported me too!" she protested, and was promptly ignored as they began what was obviously a sort of bell ceremony, under the watchful gaze of the Harvest Goddess.

It amounted to an awful lot of talking to the bells. Molly thought, with certainty, she wouldn't ring if she were a bell just because a bunch of sprites told her to. She would be a special snowflake bell that made their lives difficult!

Whatever they had done seemed to work though, as a strange looking fiery man came out of thin air.

"Are you the ones who summoned me?" he asked, in what Molly was sure was a voice that would be extremely coveted among late night phone lines for lonely women.

"Well, does it look like there are other people here ringing the bells?" she replied, indignant.

"Be quiet, Molly! Be quiet!" whispered Finn, panicked, "That's the Harvest King! Stop talking, now!"

Molly didn't see what the big deal was. She busted her rump doing all the stuff the Harvest Goddess asked and she would be damned if some big shot in a toga was going to mess up her hard work!

"Hmm... The Goddess Tree is dying?" the large man questioned, after conversing briefly with the Harvest Goddess, "Follow me."

Molly muttered some more unsavoury things, but was blissfully glad that the Harvest King had the good sense to teleport them all to the tree. The farmer wasn't sure she could walk back down the mountain.

They spent a great deal of time staring at the backside of the Harvest King as he attempted to evaluate the tree; or at least Molly did anyway.

"...You're shameless..." Finn informed her.

"Shouldn't you be watching with bated breath?" she muttered back.

The Harvest King drew back momentarily to tell the group how bad the damage was, but wasted no time fixing it. Molly was relieved one of the Harvest Deities was sensible.

With a bright flash of light, the tree was back to a vibrant, healthy state. There was an incredible amount of rejoicing, and Molly felt as if a weight had been lifted from her chest.

"Remember to nurture this tree so that its power grows. That way, it may be shared with other lands." Uttered the Harvest King, and Molly felt the familiar weight settle back on her chest.

She earnestly hoped that wasn't in her job description too. Nobody made any mention of it, at any rate, and after entirely too much celebration, she was granted a teleport back home. Finn followed her back, but she was expecting that particular occurrence. The arrangement was familiar to them now.

Upon her arrival, the first thing she did was flop gratefully on her new, large bed.

* * *

Molly was awoken later by an added weight on her bed, and a familiar palm moving intently across her shoulders in a comforting gesture. "...I forgot to feed the animals and water the crops," mumbled Molly into a pillow.

"...I did those things... Molly, the land..." the voice in her ear was quieter than usual.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I saved it and did heroic farmer things," yawned Molly. "Can you make dinner?"

"Of course..."

"Great, thanks. I feel like such a bum. I haven't done any chores today." Molly rolled over to face her companion.

"Molly..."

"What?" asked Molly, still exhausted, "Did Bess go into labour or something on you? If she did, I'm sorry, that was supposed to happen any day now..."

The Wizard smiled at her, fondly. "No... The animals are fine..."

"Then what is it? I'm beat..." Molly wasn't in the mood for playing guess-what-I'm-trying-to-say.

"...I suppose I should thank the Witch..." he stopped his gentle ministration on her shoulders, "it's because of her, I met you..."

"You met me before that, remember?" the farmer informed him as she stretched an arm, "Besides, you would have come across me anyway, I'm invasive like that. But that wasn't what you were going to say, is it?"

"Molly... My name..." the Wizard said quietly, as he continued to stroke her shoulders once more, "Call me Gale."

"Oh," she said, rather unexpected by this progression, "that's better than Mr. Wizard. Wizard sounds sort of kinky, like I'm role playing Dungeons and Dragons or something... " Molly grinned.

Gale was used to this sort of humour, and merely smiled. "Molly... I love you. I shall be by your side, always. Faithfully."

The farmer's sleep addled mind pondered this for a few moments, "Well, it had better be faithfully or it won't be for very long!" she yawned, "I love you too. But I still don't think there's enough room in my house for your giganto-telescope."

Gale made a muffled sound that may have passed for a laugh. "...I'll keep it in town then... Molly... You're different. You exceed my expectations... in a good way."

The farmer laughed lightly, "Now haven't I been told that before? Different in a good way." Molly moved her aching body to the edge of the bed, and sat side-by-side with the Wizard before resting her head on his shoulder.

Gale gazed down at her with an indeterminable expression. "I haven't lived as long as the Harvest King or Harvest Goddess..." he whispered gently, "But I wouldn't trade a long life for the opportunity of having met you..."

* * *

_"Well here we go again, you've found yourself a friend that knows you well, but no matter what you do you'll always feel as though you tripped and fell. So steady as she goes."_ _- The Racounteurs_


End file.
